Have you fulfilled your potential?

I so agree xx

Just read OP and have decided to post a reply, without reading any other posts! - I have exactly the same feelings as the OP!

Gracesgran I so agree with your two-minute rule, or bite-sized chunks as I think of them.
When I'm feeling overwhelmed or demotivated, just making a list of things I need to do or steps I need to take, and making a start, however small, seems therapeutic in itself.
Hilda wise words as usual.

You too Hilda

Perhaps I will try the two-minute rule and do some decorating
I really need to start doing some.

Non, Je ne regrette rien! But that does not mean to say there are not things I wish I had learned, done better, more of etc. My life has been based on serendipity rather than planned.

I was an 11+ 'failure' with my cousins and family friends' children all going to grammar school. I could have let it get me down..and it still grates..can you tell but I have had a rewarding and hugely enjoyable career and I could have lived independently if I had wanted to so I had that choice. I did choose family life and certainly do not regret that at all.
However I am at yet another crossroads and am trying to decide if I should give up my p/t work and just keep the voluntary stuff going. I am waiting about for 'something to happen' that will make the decision for me as has occurred in the past but think I am going to have to decide for myself this time. Maybe now I can be a ballerina and or a flautist

No, probably not. Although I have only tried to be kind and honest all my life to everyone so that's fulfilling to me that I have done that, and in my work, was in the care industry so I am proud of that.

Like loads on here, I have brought my family up for the last 30 years and now, thinking of if I would have to go back to work, then what I could do. I am at a complete loss due to knowing my health problems would severely limit what I can do, if not stop me altogether. I d know that I couldn't manage at this time to go out and work for someone as I am feeling socially awkward around people. I am awaiting counselling. Or should I wait and have the counselling first and then see how things are?

I have been watching the self employed programme tonight and would have liked to do this and if I could work at home, anytime night or day then maybe I could work something out, who knows?

Anyone any ideas what I could do at home?

I feel like that Galen and as the years rush by I can't help thinking about all the things I might have liked to have done but will never do now.

I think a lot of people feel they haven't fulfilled their potential - and they are probably right. I am sure most people have a lot more imagination, talent and creativity than they would ever imagine - and quite often it will never be discovered. Sad really.

Galen, I look back at my life and learn. I've done some good and made some mistakes but haven't we all? I'm now dealing with my children's mistakes but I have the experience to help them if they'll listen, though I accept that they might not (listen that is). I didn't.

'Potential' -what might have been. 'Life' what really is - live it or leave it!

Penstemmon love your ballerina or flautist ambition. I went on a helicopter trip, am going in a hot air balloon next week and hope to do a parachute jump if I can afford it. I might even learn to play the piano. I'm now 68 so have to move fast!

'Potential' - what I could do. 'Life' What I actually get to do - if I'm lucky enough! Here's hoping!

Galen as others have said, you've achieved so much in your life, much more than I could ever have. Being housebound even for a short time leads to introspection I think. Elegran's suggestion of the CAB is an excellent one, you have so much to offer.

I can be very guilty of thinking 'if only'; if only I'd studied harder, if only I'd had the courage to follow my own path, if only I'd been a better person.

I have to work hard to look forward not back, to constantly remind myself to live in the present, to be content.

To quote Kurt Vonnegut 'Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been".'

In answer to the OP: Yes – and more! I would have quite liked to do some other stuff – but it obviously wasn't a big deal or I would have done it.

Besides, there's still time.

One of my favourite saying....

' Don't let what was or could have been, spoil what is or could be.'

In other words you can't change the past so make the most of what you can do and enjoy, now and in the future.

I think I fulfilled my potential, more or less, after a bit of a shaky start - we had DD when I was 18 and Theseus was in the middle of Finals. She is 50 this year and so is our marriage..best mistake we ever made!

But it did mean I had to leave university quite quickly. "You can come back when it's all over, dear." Huh! But I did go back, albeit with three children in tow by then, and achieved nearly all the qualifications I had so desired, and built quite a successful career.

But it's my marriage, my DC and my 6 DGC who count so much more than all my bits of paper.

I never think much about whether I fulfilled my potential. DH obviously does because he has said on more than one occasion that I never have. Lack of self-confidence was my biggest shortcoming and stopped me seizing opportunities which would have led to bigger things. But at the end of the day, I had good jobs when I did work, got to live abroad as an Army wife, met some fascinating people, and now in a comfortable retirement, we have everything we worked hard to achieve. What does bother me is that I don't think that my children have ever achieved their full potential, although they both have good jobs, homes of their own and, I hope, settled lives. I feel that DD could have made more of her university education and considerable skills, but she is comfortable in the job she has had for many years and she never had the confidence to go out and do something commensurate with her skills. DS, while in the RAF, was constantly being encouraged to take a commission, but never felt he was "officer material" despite everyone else thinking otherwise. It all comes down to confidence in the end.

Not sure that I ever had any potential to fulfil. When I look back I do feel that I've pretty much failed at everything really. So I am trying not to look back and am practising mindfullness... living in the moment.
It doesn't always work.
(sorry, feeling gloomy today).

Sometimes we are victims of circumstance, or our upbringing etc. As Joni Mitchell said 'So many things I could have done but clouds got in my way'

I am not sure that "if onlys" are helpful in life. We do what we do at the time that we do it in good faith.

Sorry you are feeling gloomy this morning henetha - I am sure that in reality you have not "failed at everything" - I cannot imagine that there is anyone to whom that might apply. I hope that the day brightens up for you.

henetha xx

Thanks Ariadne, Mishap.... went to the garden centre and bought some summer plants... that cheered me up a bit.

Ah yes - garden centres and buying plants - a route to happiness!! Is there anything left in your bank account!?

Does anybody think they have fulfilled their potential, even those that achieve great things?

Good question, flick, and one similar to what I've been wondering since I posted on this thread, which is that although, with hindsight, I think I might have made some decisions that led me away from what I truly wanted (or thought I wanted) to do, everything I have done, I've done conscientiously and to the best of my ability, so in that sense I suppose I have fulfilled my potential. No point having regrets about what might have been. I learned from what I regard as my mistaken choices and hope that I have passed on that 'wisdom' to my offspring.

And I still have opportunities and things to learn....

I'm going to fulfil my potential today by planting the plants I bought..
slightly concerned that frost is possible tonight.
Bank account? What bank account?

Yes, I'm going to fulfil that kind of potential too henetha. Still got some plants sitting around that I bought last week. (the buying is the easy bit )