five brilliant ways to realise your potential

As POTENTIAL is my word for 2015, I have been busy finding out the best ways to eke out some of that good stuff for year long satisfaction.

Potential is an elusive word. A demon to get to grips with. I know I have it, I think it's the answer to the great existential question, I know it's in there somewhere but how the bugger do I get it out, get it working for me, and how will it know what I want it to do?

Here are five things I've found to help me put the squeeze on the big P.

1. determine what your full potential actually is. If you don't know what you might be capable of then this'll be a tricksy one. I mean clearly I'm not going to set out on a quest to be a supermodel, I like pasta too much, but I do think I have the potential to write. The potential to write good, the potential to write long time.

2. decide you want it. The thing with potential is once you've identified the damn thing, you then need to commit to it. Like marriage only without the associated cooking, cleaning and picking up of underpants from the bathroom floor.

3. set goals, small easy ones and big meaningful ones. Small ones will make the path to potential win easier; I will write every day, I will dream about writing every day, I will aim to use my seven year pen up in three (doable?). The big guys are the ones you gotta keep your eyes on, man those dudes are slippery like eels. Watch out, keep them in mind all the time and I mean ALL. THE. TIME. Know what you want to achieve this year, set your intention and do it.

4. be confident of your success. Know you can do it, feel it in your bones and most importantly act like you already did it. Fake it till you make it baby. Works every time.

5. know yourself. A bit deeper than my usual cod philosophising, I'm darned if I know who the fuck I am half the time. The ancient Greeks were not kidding having these words inscribed at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo - it's like 'bugger off all you seekers of truth, go and have a sit down and look within, yo!' and they didn't have the internet rotting their brains into mindless oblivion, so go them. I haven't got the answer only that it pays to take the time to make sure that the thing, the goal, the potential you want to realise is your thing/goal/realisation. We spend too much time doing stuff that we feel we should, or feel that somebody else, our parents, the media or our peers think we should, I say fuck 'em, go do what you want to do and be happy.

Do you think you've reached your full potential? What I'm actually saying here is 'is this it"?