Guest post by Colton Kehlenbeck, Enterprise Partnership Development Manager at Indeed Flex
Science has an interesting way of breaking down how everything functions. Energy holds the root source for all things, but science doesn’t stop there. There are 10 – yes, you read that right – 10 types of energy observed in the universe. Despite there being so many different types of energy, they all fall under two categories – kinetic and potential energy. In layman’s terms, kinetic is the action or movement, and potential is what’s stored or waiting to be used under the right conditions. How can you turn your potential energy into kinetic energy to further your career with Indeed Flex? At this point, you may be thinking, “Are we doing science experiments here?” No. We’re digging deep to evaluate our potential to practice life-changing actions.
Live kinetically, not according to someone else’s expected potential. Sometimes in life, we are like a loaded mousetrap. We create plans, prepare ourselves to execute, but then we stop. Like a mousetrap, we’ve stored ample amounts of energy into our spring, but we wait for someone else to impact our lives before we act. This causes two repeating problems:
- Reliance on others to sustain self-worth.
- Becoming reactive versus proactive.
In both instances, we generally fall prey to the same underlying issue – either we expect someone else to do something for us to act, or we find ourselves underprepared because we are consistently reacting to new challenges. To overcome these problems, we need to break down our potential energy in terms we understand and are willing to execute.
- Know Your Worth: What is your time, health, effort, and energy worth? Write down a number. Don’t look to society to define it. Eric Thomas once said, “You should go where you’re celebrated, not where you’re tolerated.” This means understanding your worth. By knowing your worth, you will redefine your potential energy and turn away from waiting for others to determine the next step.
- Hold a Standard: By standard, we mean a level of quality or achievement. Write down your beliefs, compare them to your goals, and determine where you are lowering your standards or accepting subpar results. The presence of standards help create an executable plan rather than remaining static and stewing in apathy.
- Don’t Fall in Love with Potential:Stop talking about it, and start being about it. There comes a point where your sense of self worth must be put into motion. Suppose you call yourself an adventurer but never adventure past Netflix. In that case, you’re only doing yourself a disservice by keeping up with the Kardashians versus experiencing adventure. Having potential is excellent, but if you never act upon it, you’ll find yourself living more often in your past and less in the present. It’s not a coincidence that it’s called the present– because it’s a gift! (No, we aren’t being cliché).
- Recognize Where Change Originates: Change of character and actions comes from within, not from your environment. If you have goals that you want to change, you must first understand why you want them and what the desired results look like. Don’t expect changing jobs, teams, or companies to make the changes you want to see. Those can only assist. You must be the one who changes.
It’s difficult to understand your potential and act on it. However, this process can be made easy by recognizing your self-worth, evaluating how others value you, and mapping out your standards . It’s essential to appreciate just how capable you are, but it’s also useless if you do not recognize the necessary changes needed to reach your goals. We’ll leave you with this final thought from Steve Maraboli, a best-selling author and behavioral scientist. “Your life is a balance of how effectively you balance your potential and kinetic energy.” Now is the time to transfer your energy from potential to kinetic. Are you ready to make a move? Start by polishing up your Indeed Flex profile and booking your next shift!
