The Fenn Treasure was a cache of gold and jewels that Forrest Fenn, an art dealer and author from Santa Fe, New Mexico, hid in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. After diagnosed with cancer in 1988, he was inspired to hide a treasure chest in an outdoor location with the purpose of creating a public search for it, as he felt he did not have long to live. He wrote a book with a poem giving a clue to its location and thousands of people participated in the search for the treasure. The treasure was uncovered in 2020 and he died shortly after.
Potential is like uncovered treasure, but how often do we search in earnest to uncover our potential? We talk about “potential” as if it were a fixed treasure buried inside us—either maxed out years ago or not currently relevant. Especially at mid-career or halftime of life. Research tells a different story: potential is not a static quantity but a capacity that grows or shrinks based on beliefs, practice, motivation, and environment. That’s good news. And it doesn’t take hiking in the Rocky Mountains or ten years of interpreting mixed clues to discover and expand on our potential.
In this day of technological growth of AI and other tools, it means there are tools designed to discover more of your current potential based on much of your past experience and skill set. It means you can craft and design your days, your work and your learning so that more of your latent ability expands and becomes visible. This article distills what science and seasoned practitioners have learned about turning untapped potential into meaningful performance, with pragmatic steps you can start this week.
What is Untapped Potential?
Lever One: Reset the Mindset that Governs Growth
- Watch your labels. Replace “I’m not good at X” with “I’m not good at X yet.” That tiny word—yet—keeps effort online.
- Praise the process. Compliment strategies, preparation, and persistence in yourself and others rather than focusing on “being smart.” This cultivates learning behaviors.
- Measure progress, not perfection. Track leading indicators, such as “practice minutes” applied to most any field, drafts written or reps completed. Do this, along with documenting outcomes. The visibility of progress sustains and encourages our efforts when the results are less than expected.
Lever Two: Upgrade How You Practice
Most of us repeat what we already do well, which cements plateaus. Breakthroughs come from “deliberate practice.” I have spoken quite a bit about this relating to music, especially as I spent years training as a concert pianist. I don’t perform many of the classical compositions I studied years ago, but the technique and habits I developed have served me well through the years. The same principle applies to most any performance field, including athletics and it also readily applies to lifelong learning principles. We have the ability to highly focus our training on specific weaknesses with immediate feedback.
The main takeaway from the book, Peak: Unleashing Your Inner Champion through Revolutionary Methods for Skill Acquisition and Performance Enhancement in Work, Sports and Life by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool is that expert performance is not the result of innate talent but of deliberate, purposeful practice. Ericsson’s research shows that mastery in any field—music, sports, business, or beyond—comes from pushing beyond one’s comfort zone through focused, structured, and feedback-driven training. Rather than mindless repetition, deliberate practice involves clear goals, constant evaluation, and refinement of specific skills. The book emphasizes that potential is far more flexible than most people believe, and with the right mindset, environment, and commitment to improvement, anyone can achieve extraordinary levels of performance.
For example, how to apply deliberate practice outside sports and music:
- Define the skill precisely. “Become a better communicator” is vague. Instead, “Deliver a concise executive update in under three minutes with one story, one chart, and one clear ask” is trainable.
- Short, hard reps. Practice the skill in 10–15 minute segments with full focused concentration.
- Get rapid feedback. Use a coach, colleague, or rubric to score the attempt. Adjust one variable and try again. But don’t give up!
- Set small, measurable goals based on increased difficulty. Your brain will adapt to this.
Lever Three: Use Motivation that Actually Endures
Motivation comes in different flavors. Self-Determination Theory, (STD), as stated in an article by Deci and Ryan, maintains that an understanding of human motivation is based on autonomy (choice), competence (a sense of getting better), and relatedness (connection to others). Chasing external rewards can kickstart action, but intrinsic motives keep you in the game when it gets hard.
Practical steps:
- Define your core values, along with decisions based on your desired and anticipated lifestyle. A great resource for this is in the appendix of my book, Stop Circling.
- Write a purpose paragraph. If you had a chance to read your own obituary, what would you want said about you and what story would your life tell? Then, what type of work do you want to give yourself to in this chapter of your life that is inspiring and how does it express your values?
- Create at least one main new goal based on that purpose identifying very small steps that are achievable and measurable.
- Convert goal language into a self-identity phrase. For example, instead of “run three times a week,” adopt “I am a runner who doesn’t miss twice.” Identity-based goals change our mindset into our new normal.
- Make progress obvious. A simple weekly scoreboard with a one-page habit tracker provides the encouragement and momentum to keep effort alive.
- Focus on gratefulness. Write one specific note of appreciation at least once a week to someone connected to your growth. You’ll reinforce relatedness while expanding your support network.
- Create a space that invites productivity as well as inspiration. Let your creative instincts be a part of this. However, too much physical clutter can cause mental clutter so plan and clear often.
Uncovering Hidden Strengths You've Been Ignoring
Untapped potential often hides in overlooked strengths—abilities that feel “too easy” to you, so you discount them. A quick way to surface these is with three lenses:
- Energy lens: Which tasks leave you more energized afterward?
- Excellence lens: What do others consistently praise you for?
- Ease lens: What do you do unusually fast with high quality?
Where the three overlap is a credible “edge.” To validate it, run a 14-day test where you deliberately spend 20–30% more time on those tasks and track results. Often, the flywheel effect (better performance → more trust → higher-leverage opportunities) reveals itself quickly. There’s an illustration of this included in the article.
Where the three overlap is a credible “edge.” To validate it, run a 14-day test where you deliberately spend 20–30% more time on those tasks and track results. Often, the flywheel effect (better performance → more trust → higher-leverage opportunities) reveals itself quickly. Download the illustration of these three lenses.
Crafting a Personal Operating System (POS)
Talent compounds when you standardize how you work. A simple POS reduces decision fatigue and frees attention for creative effort.
Basic Components to mentally install:
- Review all plans the night before for using less brain energy the following morning. Your weekly plan should have been reviewed the previous weekend.
- Morning launch sequence: 10–20 minutes of movement, planning, and one hard starter task. This is when I spend time with a personal devotion and write in my journal. I then add on to this time with exercise and walking our dog when in town.
- Pay attention to your energy levels throughout each day to plan most effectively for productive tasks. Personally, I aim to accomplish more difficult thinking, writing and recording tasks in the morning hours.
Potential is not a promise; it’s a design problem. When you align mindset, method and motivation—and you protect your energy—you create conditions where capability compounds. Start small, track progress, and let the system do its work. Your future self will feel inevitable—not because it always existed, but because you built it step by patient step.
Additional Resources
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
Immunity to Change: How to Overcome it and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
Peak: Unleashing Your Inner Champion through Revolutionary Methods for Skill Acquisition and Performance Enhancement in Work, Sports and Life by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool
Stop Circling: Steps to Escape Endless Roundabouts by Deborah Johnson
FREE Downloads: Goal Setting Worksheets
FREE Resources and links: https://GoalsForYourLife.com/DJWorks
YouTube Podcast Playlist: Women at Halftime/Power of After
Potential is not a static quantity but a capacity that grows or shrinks based on beliefs, practice, motivation, and environment.
deborah johnson
Thought Leader, Keynote Speaker, Author
If you are interested in growing and learning, check out our online courses here: Online Learning
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