Potential for Good – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

What happens when we set out to unleash our potential?

Photo by spiros xanthos on Unsplash

Can we unleash our full potential to do good? Of course we can, and to do harm as well. This week we’ve seen how human beings can unleash their potential from opposite ends of ideology and reason, at the most inhumane and the most noble extremes: war and peace. By potential I mean the unique capacity we carry inside to give the very best of ourselves, a capacity often smothered by noise that keeps us from releasing it. So the question is: how do we unleash our potential to do good?

We don’t need to lead a nation to lead and do good. Every day, within our circle of influence, we have chances to lead and make a difference. The big problem is how poorly we define leadership, if we define it at all. I’ve always believed leadership, like strategy, is both a science and an art, and leadership means people, and people mean feelings, emotions, values and more. We’ve overused the word to the point where a veil keeps us from seeing what a leader is and what a leader isn’t.

In this conflict, this war unfolding as I write, we can see the potential we carry and what we’re capable of. We don’t need tanks to wage war. We can spread terror every day, consciously and unconsciously. How? At work, in how we treat others, at the office, at home, in our families, everywhere… A leader is and always will be on the side of reason.

War is the continuation of a history we haven’t learned from. Wars are started by those who believe they’re right and ended by those who truly want peace and seek it for others. War is the point of greatest tension, and at every moment nature urges us to do good. Everything we need to live has been given to us so we can see the beauty of living in peace and enjoy it to the fullest. As the saying goes, the sun rises for everyone. I pray we soon find a path to peace, a peace that gives us back our hope.

This is a moment to reflect that every time we set out to do something, we unleash our potential (to do good or to do harm). A few questions worth asking before we start: is what I want to achieve in tune with my purpose? With the purpose of others? Will it bring about good?

Wishing you all the best, and above all peace,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. I write this post from the heart, hoping that an unnecessary conflict, in which so many men, women and children are suffering, and all of us with them, ends soon. This week’s VELA only has the reading part, since I’ve been traveling for work. As it happens, I’ve been reading Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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