Set yourself up for success: How Hidden Potential Can Work for You

Main points, no filter:

✅. Natural talent is overrated – It’s grit, strategy, and support systems that fuel real progress, not some magical inborn ability.

✅. Growth starts messy – You don’t need to be good to begin. Progress often looks like failure before it looks like success.

✅. Practice isn’t enough—how you practice matters – Mindless repetition won’t cut it. You grow faster when you reflect, stretch, and get feedback.

✅. Environment makes or breaks you – Who and what you surround yourself with will either push your growth or stunt it. Choose wisely.

✅. Potential is earned, not given – You’re not “stuck.” You’re just not done yet. Growth is a decision, not a destiny.

Ready to find your hidden potential? schedule a consult. Want to learn more? Read more below. 

I get a lot of inspiration for blogs, workshops, and work with clients through books, podcasts, and continuing education events.  I like to have conversations about what I learn and make connections to other subjects and topics.  I’d like to believe that my love for reading and learning translates to my work with clients. Check out my website to get a list of some of my favorites for growth and self-improvement.  

If you work with me, I have probably mentioned a resource that you may find helpful or used an anecdote to gain clarity in your work.

Adam Grant’s Hidden Potential is on my radar for this month’s blog theme – April Showers Brings May Flowers. This book is all about “the science of achieving greater things”, it opens with a Tupac quote, I was intrigued from the start.

Hidden Potential talks about what you need to tap into your greatness and get more of what you want out of life. Grant divides the book into sections to clearly define what it takes to be the best version of yourself. He provides stories of success and failure combined with statistics and research to inspire you to find your own hidden potential. He and I share the belief that everyone has potential, they just need to find it.

Here are some lessons from Hidden Potential that will challenge you to think and do differently. Ready to dig in?

“Talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not”. How do we use our natural talents and passion to create opportunity? Adam Grant suggests looking at three domains.

Character Skills

Character skills include things like grit, determination, open mindedness, loyalty, and motivation. Take the VIA Character Strengths quiz to see what your top five are. 

Character skills are different than personality traits. Personality refers to  your temperament and genetics. We possess all the character skills to some degree, and they are either stifled or refined through our experiences and awareness.

Like any other skill, if we commit to practice, we will get better at growing character strengths that will unleash our potential. So, how do we work on our character?

There is no growth without discomfort.

When we avoid discomfort, we limit growth. In therapy, we talk about sitting in the discomfort. Humans naturally avoid things that are uncomfortable to protect our image and sense of self. We would rather feel comfortable now, even if it means more discomfort later.

Embrace the awkwardness of learning

Think of a baby when it is just learning to walk. It is very wobbly and unsteady. If you watch a toddler, it may take a few steps, fall on its butt, and then say “screw this, I’m crawling”.

But we know that walking is more effective than crawling, so we encourage the little tyke to try again. Initially, a toddler crawling is faster than a toddler walking, but before you know it, they are off running full speed. If we did not encourage the toddler to embrace the awkwardness, how would it learn to walk? This goes for any new skill. It doesn’t come out beautifully the first time, it takes practice using an approach that works for you.

“Comfort in learning is a paradox. You can’t become truly comfortable with a skill until you’ve practiced it enough to master it. But practicing it before you master it is uncomfortable, so you often avoid it.”

Work smarter, not harder

A lot of times we look at the quantity over quality. If I just work more hours, I can earn more money. If I exercise more, I will weigh less. These statements are oversimplified. 

The problem is more and bigger isn’t always better. There are only so many hours you can work in a day before you burn out. Exercise isn’t the only factor that impacts weight loss (or gain), it may not even be the most important.

If increasing your income or changing your weight is something you want to work on, diversify the tasks that get you to that goal. Look at your goals from several different angles and move forward. It may be slower, but it is sustainable.   

“Prosperity rises as people become more capable of absorbing new ideas and filtering out old ones”  

How does this apply to you?

Shed the idea of “this is how I’ve always done it” and try something different. There is more than one right way to do things. Figure out what works for you, even if it breaks the mold.

Are you with me so far? We are going to be awkward and make mistakes, so that we can try new and improved ways to do things. How do we know what to try, what works and what doesn’t, and how we can do better or different next time?

Be proactive with a growth mindset. Growth is about how well you learn

Your approach to learning and your goal for learning influence your absorptive capacity - your ability to apply information from your experiences. Grant suggests that if you actively seek out information with a growth mindset, you absorb the information like a sponge and can apply that information for future use.  But, if you only look for cheerleaders and not coaches, or if you get defensive and shut down when you get input from others, you will stay stuck.

Connect with people who have your best interest at heart, that know you well and have wisdom in your area of growth. Take their advice with an open mind without shutting down or shutting them out. If they care, they want to see you succeed.

Structures to Sustain Motivation

“Scaffolding: a temporary support structure that enables us to scale heights we couldn’t’ reach on our own. It helps us build the resilience to overcome obstacles that threaten to overwhelm us and limit our growth,”

So, what does this scaffolding look like?

Deliberate Play

One might think that practice and repetition will get you to your desired skill level. Just repeat the practice over and over until you get it right. The problem is, it takes a lot of will power and energy to sustain that tempo. Research shows that you will do no better than your peers who incorporate deliberate play into their practice. Have fun in learning. Figure out ways that you can improve your skill that is engaging. Deliberate play removes the need for willpower.

Taking a Break

We have heard the term hyperfocus, but what about scatter focus. Your brain can wander around in a field of wildflowers just taking it all in. Taking breaks helps to sustain passion, unlock fresh ideas, and deepen learning. Relaxation is not a waste of time; it’s an investment in wellbeing.

Rest is a way to incubate ideas. Have you ever been staring at a problem and agonizing over the solution only to find when you come back in the morning after taking a break the answer is obvious? This is the benefit of taking a break.

Find a hobby

In line with taking a break, spending time doing something different than work, will enrich your work. If you feel like you are in a rut, doing something completely different will often get you unstuck. Sometimes, we just need a win, even if it’s in a different arena to get motivated again.

The right direction is different than directions

There is no one right way to achieve a goal. The right way to do things is the way it gets done. When we have a goal in mind, there no one set way to do it. Even if there was, and you followed the directions exactly, you would yield a different result than anyone else who follows those same steps. When we give up doing things the “right” way, we can do things the way they need to be done.

Harness resources with and for others

Instead of looking for motivation internally, try looking to others. If you have a goal in common with other folks, join them, pool your ideas and your motivation. When you work together you are improving yourself by working with others. Remember what you are fighting for, whether it’s for your teammates, future you, or future generations, having a why beyond you in the here and now will help you to sustain motivation.

Resilience

When you incorporate these elements of scaffolding, it helps build resilience. You are better able to bounce back from setbacks if you are enjoying the practice, giving yourself breaks, and finding success in other hobbies or domains. When you are with other folks in the same struggle, you can find motivation in encouraging others, and they will encourage you.  Sometimes you need to regress to progress.

“scaffolding unleashes hidden potential by helping us forge paths we couldn’t otherwise see. It enables us to find motivation in the daily grind, gain momentum in the face of stagnation and turn difficulties and doubts into sources of strength”

Systems to Expand Opportunity.

Spoiler alert, the end of Grant’s book talks about what we can do to find other’s hidden potential. If we can pull ourselves up, we can pull others up with us.  

Role models matter

Be that person that others can look up to. Use your privilege to open the door for others, be their compass, and mentor. When young minds see people who look like them in places of success, they can believe it’s possible for them too.

Mindset Matters

If we zoom out further and look at the values of our society, we need to shift from the idea that successful people show signs of potential early to everyone has potential that needs to be nurtured. We need to shift our values to achieve equity over excellence and, ensure that everyone gets what they need to succeed in their daily lives, not just those with access to it.

How Hidden Potential can work for you

Maybe I have sold you on this book and it is already in your Amazon cart. Better yet, it is in your bookshop.org cart or you are stopping by your favorite brick and mortar bookstore to pick up a copy. (Because where you spend your money matters).

You might also be struggling to understand how all this lofty talk applies to you. This is where therapy, specifically therapy with me, comes into play. I work with folks at a time of change. I can help you identify the points where you are stuck, look at it from a different lens, and encourage you to figure out what scaffolding looks like for you.  I can provide a space to vent, give you accountability for growth, and sit with you in the discomfort of awkward squirmy change. Are your armpits sweating yet? Let’s dig in. Reach out for a consult.