How To Support, Encourage And Help Transform Someone Else’s Potential Into Reality

You lift the fog from their path and make sure they do not cloud themselves again!

People are quite powerful on their own and do not need any more power.

If everyone simply talked to a street lamp for an hour a day their life would improve as they often know what’s wrong themselves.

The problem is that most people do not do this and continue to live in the fog they created.

They know this fog, grew up in it, and have grown accustomed to it by now.

To them the world simply is foggy!

And that is exactly where you can come in.

If you want to make someones potential become a reality you must make a clear path for them first.

You have to make the fog visible to them, which sometimes requires slapping them square across the face so they open their eyes.

It’s your job, if you choose to draw out their true potential, to be the person that is more direct and blunt with them than anyone else dares to be.

If they screw up, if they make mistakes, if they keep avoiding life’s problems then you don’t say “It’s okay! It will all be okay!”.

You tell them that they screwed up, that they are ruining their life and that they have to stop diddle-daddling around.

You have to show them clearly what this fog is doing to their life and keep their path clear.

And that is where the biggest problem comes in…

Because people are so accustomed to their fogged up image of the world they want to keep it.

We are all creatures of habit and any big change is always scary, even if it is necessary and better.

As someone who wants to draw out the person’s true potential it’s your responsibility to stop them from getting in their own way.

They can screw around all they want on their own, but not with you around.

When they come to you you tell them how it is.

You don’t hold anything back and show them the exact path they need to take.

And when they veer off the path you slap them in the face and show them what they are doing to themselves.

You do not allow them to keep clouding their vision.

Not because you enjoy slapping them in the face or because you enjoy frustrating them, but rather because you can see their potential from the moment you’ve met them.

From the beginning you saw what they were capable of and how brightly they could shine, and you don’t dare to let all of that die in the fog for the sake of being nice or making a friend.

When you’re direct, when you’re showing them the things they don’t want to see and when you love and support them through all of that, when you keep the bigger picture in mind and make them see it too, then they will truly learn to shine!

Originally published at http://quora.com.