Reaching Your Goals or Reaching Your Potential

I heard a quote recently that went something like this: “Some people reach their goals, but never reach their potential.”

There’s a difference between hitting a goal, and reaching your potential. You may have someone who hits the goals he sets for himself, but in the end sells himself short of what he could have done with the skills and opportunities he had at his disposal.

Goals are fine, but are not an end in themselves. More important is a dedication to continued growth. If we’re always looking to learn, always looking to grow, always looking to improve, then there is no finish line. We can never sit back and think we’ve arrived. And because of this, we’ll continue to grow our entire lives, coming much closer to our potential than if we only focus on reaching the arbitrary goals we’ve set.