Shaping Your Personal Potential #potential #personalgrowth #personaldevelopment #selfcare

Having a vision of creation is similar to planting a seed. Now as we come to understand and begin to realize how much control we actually hold in our hands to direct the formation and molding or shaping of our lives, we can start to see what some of our possibilities personally may be. Initial enlightenment to our individual potential can be very exciting. We begin to see, to envision our immutable identity, including who we can become and what we can accomplish. Let us look at a seed for instance. Each seed carries with it the genetic pre-programming to create a fully mature plant or seed or tree. A fully functioning plant with a stem, leaves, flowers, and a root system. But the genetic programming of the seed is not the only thing that affects and directs its development. Everything that happens externally to the seed on the young plant, as it is developing, has the potential to alter or sculpt the way the seed develops into a fully formed plant. Genetic makeup sets the foundation and determines the potential outcome, the size, the color, the width, the leaves, the fruit. But environment may influence or adjust or alter the expression of the seed. This is not to say that the environment can make a watermelon seed become an apple tree. Environment modulates genetic programming but can't change identity. Plant seeds are just that. Plant seeds. They don't have willpower or the sense that they are making a wrong choice. They do what they are designed to do. Seek light, nutrients, and grow to fulfill their destiny. Everything a plant does is reflexive based on genetic coding. Basically, a seed developing into a plant is a super complex algorithm that is reacting to different inputs and yielding different outputs. Reflex only. No willpower, no choice, no agency, no action aside from just their reaction, genetically. They're merely actions to respond to, prompts to answer. Humans are strikingly similar in several critical ways, but also quite different. We have genetic coding that dictates the number of fingers and toes we have, our hair color, the depth of our voice, whether our earlobes are free or attached, our sex, our eye color, our body's response to particular pathogens like those that cause gum disease. These things are hardwired into our physical body. There is no real way to change any of these things. We can cover them, we can hide them to some degree, but ultimately these genetic things are coded into us, into every single cell of us. But there are things that we have a great deal of control over, not the least of which is our ability to improve via metacognition. Now metacognition is just a fancy way to say, I am able to comprehend and evaluate my own thoughts and understanding. It's quite remarkable how we have this ability to comprehend our own comprehension. With this ability, though, comes an opportunity to adjust and remove and change and improve our thoughts and actions, changing ourselves. We have to be cautious, though, not to forget that we all have this actual physical genetic pre-programming within our DNA molecules that are present. These molecules are present in every single cell in our bodies. I don't say this to say that our DNA and genetic identity is a limitation, but rather a foundation to be built upon. Just imagine having a malleable foundation, one that wasn't set in stone or firm and reliable. How difficult would it be to begin building upon this foundation if you can never trust it to be solid and stable? Would you find it frustrating to be in a constant state of flux when trying to establish your personal and unique identity and character? Yes, we have a genetic foundation that provides us with a launch platform. And yes, we also have a number of environmental or external factors and prompts that will try to influence us. But yes, we also have our own free will to adjust and remove, change and improve ourselves each and every day. What great power and peace comes from this realization?