As Muhammad Ali once said:
Champions are not made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream and a vision.
And how true this is! Everything we are, everything we become, emerges from a place deep inside us.
We each have the potential to be something great and to be the best person we can be. But like Clark Kent, many of us are walking around rarely showing anyone our red capes. Why? What stops us from revealing our capes and flying?
What are the champions of our world doing to help themselves reach their full potential?
Can anyone do it? Absolutely! Allow me to illustrate with this inspiring true story.
In 1891, Milton Lasell Humason was born in Mount Wilson, Minnesota. At age 14, Milton dropped out of school and became a bellboy at the local hotel. Milton worked his way up to "mule skinner," taking materials and equipment up the mountain while Mount Wilson Observatory was being built. At 26, Milton became the observatory janitor. Then, because he had always loved gazing at the stars, he volunteered to be night assistant there. With a passion for all things technical, Milton asked one of the astronomers to teach him mathematics. Gradually he learned about the equipment used to study the stars until one day one of the astronomers made Milton an official staff member at the observatory. What a controversy! Milton had no Ph.D. Worse still, he had no education. But he soon proved the skeptics wrong, becoming integral in the discovery of several galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
Yes. It was this seemingly simple mule skinner who helped the human race discover its place in the universe -- someone who clearly had potential for greatness all that time.
Now some might say, "Well that was just luck -- being in the right place at the right time."
But was it?
Isn't realizing our full potential about finding our passion in life? It's about finding what lies deep within our DNA and brings us that deep sense of joy, and then making the most of the opportunities that present themselves to us along this road called life.
Milton saw various opportunities to do what he loved to do -- gaze at the stars -- and he took each and every one of them. Each step brought him closer to his dream, his vision and his destiny.
What Milton's story also teaches us is that we each have locked in our DNA the potential to be great and that realizing that potential is also about creating the right conditions so our potential can grow into our reality. For example, choosing to study certain courses or pursuing various career paths -- like Milton did.
Think about it. A flower won't grow unless the conditions are right but even if the conditions aren't right it still possesses within its DNA the potential to be a flower.
Aren't we just the same?
But with our seeds planted, watered and nurtured -- what else does it take for our potential to thrive and blossom? Most people can do that much but what stops some from going further?
Join me later this week to find out the answer to these questions and more.