BOOK REVIEW: YOU CAN LIVE YOUR POTENTIAL

You Can Live Your Potential (2007)

Paul H. Saunders B.A Grad Dip Applied Psych Psychologists

How do you define full potential? Are you living it?

Saunders’ book is a self-help book that is structured in a way that it is easy to follow; it is light and broken up with some illustrations. It gives the reader some theoretical (psychological) background, then relates the theory to real life examples and finally applies it to practical tools and for the reader to use while going through the book.

 So what is new and exciting in Saunders’ book “You can Live your Potential”? Disappointingly little. It has taken me so long,  I am embarrassed to admit,  to get to this book and review it. Even though I read it in the first couple of weeks from receiving it, You Can Live Your Potential didn’t motivate me to write about it, or – to my concern- live my full potential!?

I did enjoy some parts of the book and scribbled some things down to identify my values and goals and so on. I think it is great if people sometimes stop and give themselves a value check and really think what their goals in life are. I certainly recognize there are some areas in my life I want to put more focus on, such as yoga practice or healthy eating.  It scares me that some people never stop to think what their goals are and what they want to achieve in life.

I would say the most intriguing part of the book was a diagram that separated life into quadrants with physical self at the bottom and self- actualisation at the top. To say you have lived your potential, your energy and time would have had to been spent in the sphere of self- actualisation. The theory behind this is that the more you spend with things such as spirituality, creativity, community, culture, family and conformity,  the happier and fuller potential you will be.

I found this theory very valid as those areas in life tend to be the ones that are less focussed on. On the other side of the circle we have things like financial success, career, image, achievement and pleasure.  While perhaps this idea is not new and not claimed to be so, it was nice to clearly see the areas that one should pay more attention to. I saw a clear link to the things that I want to do more in the areas listed in the top two quadrants.  I wanted to share this diagram so I took it to work and asked my workmates to think of 3 things that they should do that week in the sphere of self-actualisation. It occurred to me that a whole another book could be written about this subject!

So there was nothing wrong with this self help book as such. Perhaps  I just wasn’t very receptive to the old “John was an accountant but what he really wanted to do was to run a floristry shop and by using these techniques he is now arranging flowers happily ever after”- type of stories.  

 But it did make me wonder what does it really take for people to reach their full potential? I think it is question that sure, can be guided through a book like Saunders’ but it certainly didn’t answer the more deep questions I have about how to reach my potential.I know what my values are- and I believe they are ever changing as I grow and learn more. I roughly know my goals and my goals motivate me. But am I really living my full potential? How is this defined? Saunders book talks about “self you always wanted to be” but  do you have to want to be something you are not?  As my happy self, what is my full potential? Or, do we always have to live to our full potential? Is it the prerequruicite to happiness?

Perhaps the next book will be written about this.

Thanks to Emergen for the Opportunity to read and review this book!