Moving From Potential to Performance

This past summer, I got the opportunity to spend some time with a local high school football team.  Most of these guys have lived in our area all their lives.  They played ball together in youth league, JV, and were then practicing for their Varsity season.  There was a lot of talent out on the practice field.  Some were already favorites to go play Division I football in college.  There was one word our community kept using to describe the team… Potential. 

“Those boys have great potential.”

“There’s potential for them to go all the way.”

These were just a couple of the statements that were buzzing around the practice field and in the local shops around town.  Those who used the word were absolutely right.  The team had a lot of potential, but that was not enough.

Everyone has a level of potential.  A person’s potential is usually related to an aptitude of some kind: academics, athletics, or another arena of life.  With potential, a person has the opportunity to be or do something great with their giftedness.  However, potential is never a guarantee of greatness.  We all remember seeing men and women fall from golden opportunities because of bad choices.  They squandered the potential they were given.

At some point, potential has to move toward performance.  This is the difference between great leaders and those who could have been great leaders.  Execution is the only way to activate the potential that you have been blessed with.  This requires hard work, growth, and commitment to where you want to be.  Status quo is not an option for the high-performance person.  It is all about harvesting potential to fuel performance.

It boils down to a simple question: what are you doing to move from potential to performance?

So how did the home team turn out? They moved from potential to performance with each practice and game they participated in throughout the season.  The last game of the regular season is this Friday night.  It won’t be the last game their seniors dress for in High School Football, though.  They made the playoffs and are serious about making a run for state champs.