Potential

Throughout my life, I have been able to see potential in things. I see a situation or object as it is currently, but I also see "what could be." As a child, this meant taking a scrap piece of fabric and draping it on my dolls to create different clothes. I could make a dress, a skirt, a shirt, etc from a piece of fabric without sewing it. In school, my thinking/seeing in terms of "what could be" made me a better student. I am curious and enjoy learning. I was an avid reader and read the novels assigned to my sister (she was 6 grades ahead of me) when I was in middle school.

In my personal life today, I sometimes see in photographs. Light catches my eye and I find myself framing the image, whether I have a camera or not. Sometimes I will pause to look at how things appear from different angles. It also affects my knitting but not quite as much yet. I see yarn that I like and I think, "What could I make with that? What other yarns could go with that?"

In my professional life, this ability to see "what could be" is a double edged sword. It helps me to be able to see potential in the people that I work with. It also helps that I can see that small changes can have a large impact on people. It aids me to be driven in my work because I see myself as a work in progress, always striving to improve and be better at what I do. The challenge is that I frequently see the potential in a situation and can get down when reality is a long way from the potential. I get quite frustrated in these situations, especially when I don't know how to help the potential to become the reality, or at least a bit closer it. However, the most frustrating is when others appear to not want see the potential or strive towards it.