Or mine.
Might as well drink-a-drink-a-drink of Lilly the Pink’s Medicinal Compound–you wind up thinking you’re Napoleon in either case, but the Compound is reputed to work faster. 
–James
That clarifies things. Sounds similar to what my EST-groupie brother-in-law and sister-in-law would’ve said back in roughly '85.
I didn’t mean to have this wander off on the intentions of the person saying this to me (Fearfaoin actually hit very close to the mark with the idea that this person perceives me as an unhappy, negative individual).
It just got me wondering what you all think “potential” is. One religion I know well speaks of working toward perfection (which is one major reason so many members suffer from depression). Does potential mean the same as perfection? If you’re living up to your potential in a certain area, are you therefore perfect in that area? You’d have to be or there’d still be room to grow, right?
Just thinking out loud…
Susan
I live up to my full potential of procrastinating at every given opportunity. 
And fretting way too much about it.
If you are projecting unhappiness and negativity, it means you understand the situation better than most people. Any situation.
Your friend strikes me as the kind of person who, on being handed a sack of horsesh!t, is optimistic that a pony is soon to follow. You know better. You know that horsesh!t is on its way whether you get a pony or not.
Your friend is striving to reduce you to his or her own level. Resist.
I’d say no. It’s better to say that no one can obtain “perfection”, and that your
“full potential” marks the point where you are as close to “perfection” as you
can get at that time. I guess the trick is that the meaning of “living to your full
potential” would change over time. When you are a student in elementary
school, it means something different from when you are in college, or entering
the workforce, or when you become a parent, or when you’re retired.
I also see the phrase used a lot in response to what appears to be official willingness to write off kids (or adults) with disabilities from autism to cerebral palsy as not worth educating.
Confusingly, in that case it’s the kinds parents and other advocates who demand that their children be educated to their full potential.
I think there’s an implied connection between “potential” and “effort”.
The basic idea is: your potential can be achieved if you apply personal effort.
e.g. if you want to play an instrument well, you have to practice. It means sustained periods of paying attention, and trying to play better. Of course there are judgements along the way. Namely, recognizing the difference between the current sound and the desired sound.
Also, I think the term “potential” is commonly used as a form of emotional leverage. It plays into the “hope” of getting something we want or being something we’d like. Even if that something is simply the approval or acceptance of the speaker.
What is a person’s potential? It’s tempting to compare to other persons. Role models come to mind. But how does that mesh with individual uniqueness and identity?
I give up. Too many contingencies for a type-byte.
Aha! Someone who sees the light! 
Susan
I can give you an example of “potential”…
Noah (my son) is highly gifted. We really don’t know what his IQ score is, because he is also highly ADD. He has great intelligence, which he can manifest at times - he does very well with abstract thinking and reasoning.
His grades are mediocre at best. That’s because his school puts a heavy emphasis on homework. Noah has a real problem with homework, one we’ve tried for eleven years to work on, and we’ve yet to hit on the “cure”. Homework has too many steps to successful completion for Noah. He has to hear it assigned, remember it’s assigned, remember to bring home the materials to do it, actually do it, remember to put it back into his bookbag, get it back to school, not loose it in his locker, and remember to hand it in. That’s just too many steps for him. It can and has fallen through anywhere along the line.
We’ve tried all kinds of accomodations anywhere along the way - planners, voice recorders, emailing homework, duplicate textbooks at home, doing the work at after school before leaving, handing the work in the second he walks in the door in the morning, doing weekly checks of his backpack and locker, you name it - we’ve tried it. Unfortunately, the school won’t (and I won’t push) for the one thing that would prevent all this - no homework.
He almost always gets all As on tests - unless he starts to think too much. What I mean by that is during a multiple choice test, he will try to think of a way EVERY answer could be correct. He often has a “different” way of getting an answer - and can explain it - but it may not be the way the teacher intended.
He would dearly love to be a veternarian. He’s been volunteering at our zoo for 5 summers. He’s been working for our vet for over a year. He has a real touch with animals - he’s not adverse to cleaning out the cages, holding animals during exams, or helping with euthanasia. But his grades, and the state we live in, have pretty well guarenteed he’ll never be a vet. He is looking at the 2 year vet tech program.
So is Noah working up to his potential? Depends on how one looks at it. We know he cannot do homework like a “normal” student, so when he does manage to get through a quarter with no missed assignments, it’s working ABOVE his potential. But he is highly intelligent, so one would say that not getting all As is working BELOW his potential. He easily has the intelligence to be a vet, but not the drive or dedication it would take.
I just want him to be happy.
there is something to be said for living in the present, “be here now”-Baba Ram Dass, but it is hard to do, I try and do it often, but I don’t look at it as “potental”, I call it living in reality, in the present of the moment, not past not future, and I would not wish to lay it on me close ones.
I only want a wake, no funeral for me, and they can run me through a wood chipper and compost me into star dust again.
One of the best ways to make sure your funeral is done as you see fit is to arrange and pay for everything in advance, and make sure all your funeral requirements are listed in your will. Don’t leave it up to a verbal message to another person. Make sure your executor and your lawyer are familiar with what your funeral requirements are, too.
djm
My sister and I were at some funeral where the dear departed had specified everything. When we went home we each took a sheet of paper and thought about what we each wanted at our funerals… for about thirty seconds. Separately, we each decided that we really don’t care, because we’d be dead. And that funerals are more about the people who are not.
As long as we’re wandering off in this direction: My family (apart from my daughter) hasn’t had much to do with me in some years. I can’t imagine anything more uncomfortable for them (or me, for that matter) than trying to find someone to say nice things about me. We’ll skip the funeral and my daughter can have me sent off to the flames (no, not hell).
Susan
This probably needs a separate thread, but who am I to defy C&F protocol (aka thread drift)?
So you don’t care what becomes of your remains after you die. Neither do I. But you probably don’t want your family to be nailed with a bunch of unexpected funeral/interment costs, either. That’s the benefit of a will that includes all funeral arrangements and making sure the whole package is paid for now, while you’re still around.
But if you don’t care what happens to your physical remains, there’s a newer solution besides burning or burying, and that’s melting, aka alkaline hydrolysis. In this case, all your soft parts are dissolved safely and then flushed down the drain. A residue is left similar to the remains after cremation, and this can be presented to the family if that is desired.
What do you think of AH? I rather like the idea that no real estate is wasted on a grave, no ground water is polluted by my rotting hulk, no polluting, fuel consuming burning process, and no urn to be kicked around and lost in the next move. I can get into … sort of …
djm
About funerals. We live a day’s journey away from our families and we’re always the ones on driving to them, rarely do they drive to us. We’re having our memorial services here and if they want to come, they’ll have to drive. I just hope I have good music at my funeral. We’re donating our bodies to science, the least fussy way to dispose of our bodies.
About living up to your full potential. Thank you for bringing this up. I get accused of being a slacker all the time. I volunteer for things all the time. If I’m involved in a retreat, I volunteer to plan and do the music. I get accused of being a slacker because I don’t give a talk. Other musicians will even accuse me of being a slacker because I play the song in whichever key and instrument is the easiest for me. Later this week, I’m co-presenting at a conference on the topic of “Creating Games for Therapuetic Intervention & Training.” This isn’t my job but this is an issue dear to my heart and I get accused of being a slacker for playing games. At my job, we’re having a state-wide meeting next month. I volunteered to be a team captain for a project. My best friend asked me what my angle was. I told him. It looked like the easiest project, it was a project that needed changed, and if I made the project go my way, I wouldn’t have to learn about the new project. Again, I’m a slacker. I’ve even been e mailing the team members ahead of our meeting to get us all on the same page. We’ve gotten so much done already, we will probably get our project done early and be able to have extra time for kayaking at the resort. I try to live simply. I don’t remodel for remodeling’s sake, I repair when things need fixed. We adopt adult dogs so that I don’t have to deal with puppy behavior. Again, I’m a slacker.
Be very careful about pay-in-advance arrangements…one article here:
http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/2007/sep/estate-scamming.html
I read an article someplace in the last month or two that said it is so easily abused by the funeral industry that it actually isn’t a very good idea.
Susan
(Mutepointe, I’m sick of your slacking!)
You and many other people Susan. Besides not living up to your full potential, do you also get accused of not caring what other people think of you?
http://www.enessay.com/mp3/blue_roses/procrastination.mp3
One of my favorites although I wish they would finish it 
I have heard of those red flags regarding prepaid funerals as well.
I have one of those. I would not go so far as to say mine is highly gifted…in fact, sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised when teachers tell me he’s intelligent. I can’t think of a person who colors more outside the lines, and I’d be hard-pressed to think of something he could knuckle down and do that would actually pay rent.
sigh…
but he does come up with some original ideas, no doubt. I don’t think you could even roughly guess his potential. It shines through in occasional stabs and bursts of surprisingly enlightened thought, but mostly seems stuck under an impenetrable shell of utter impracticality.
I don’t know…maybe most people do live up to their potential. It’s a complex thing, and your quirks and motivations (or lack thereof) are as much a part of the whole package as your IQ or talent or any measurable factor.