On Human Potential

Can a person achieve more than they would have originally if they make different choices? No. The path one walks down is singular. The choices you make do not affect the path, they are the path. If you are to achieve great things, you do so. If not, so be it. To say that a person wasted potential is incorrect. That statement is merely based upon an incorrect assumption of original potential by the observer. For instance, say you think by entering a covenant of marriage and thereafter experiencing the personal growth associated with such a union, you feel you have achieved more personal growth than had you not become married. Or say you have children, and then understand even more about yourself and life in general. This assumption is incorrect, for you have no way of knowing what you would have been like had you not gotten married or had children; you merely assume. Each person is born with a certain allotment of achievement, and whether it comes easily or after a lifetime of struggle, you still end up where you are supposed to be. The key is to understand your predetermined achievement level and accept it. If you feel a drive to achieve more than other people, that doesn’t make you special or unique or better than them in any way other than the obvious-that we are all special and unique. Perhaps your unique quality is to forever strive for more-then that was your lot from the beginning. Perhaps you are content with not achieving as much as other people-in this case, you understand your position, and that your position is necessary. More achievement does not deserve more respect, even though it is viewed that way. We all stand on the same earth, no matter how well we stand on it. Knowing thyself is also knowing what you are not. Accept your being. Every person is different from every other person in some way, just like clouds in the sky.