Have you fulfilled your potential?

I feel I have fulfilled my potential. I have had my lovely family who are a credit to me and their late Father. I have cared for numerous young children over many years. I have helped families in crisis during these years too. I have treated everyone as I like to be treated so I feel I have fulfilled my potential and I am enjoying some me time now in later life. I just wish my beloved husband was still here to enjoy it with me. It would have been just perfect if we were still together, but....

janerowena I am glad there is another that never felt ambitious, I have always thought there must be something wired up wrong in my brain! at the age of 59 I am still not really ambitious, there are things I would like to do but wouldn't call them ambitious. My parents never really took any notice in my school work, I can never remember them going to ONE! parents night my whole school life. I didn't like school and the only time they reared up is when I walked out of a class, and never went back (they didn't find out for three weeks then whole hell let loose) I then went to work in a crisp factory and loved every minute of it .
I do like to think I have helped people along the way and have made people smile.so
Also I never had the yearning to travel, I have never been to London and not interested in ever going. I must have been pretty content as I strolled through life.

I like that, Bags.

Can't do CAB while I'm still with the tribunals, but might think about it when I go in one year and ten months.

Saw a nice quote on twitter today: "The only reason you should look back is to see how far you've come".

glass

glass from me too, I'm trying that approach too and planning what I'd like to do too -starting with planning some days out / weekends away (on my own if DH isn't interested!)

glass

In the last few months I have made the decision that I can no longer use "what ifs" and I am no longer going to let that saying drag me down. I am what I am and have done things and have the family I might not have had under different circumstances.

galen I also think you would be perfect for something along the lines of CAB with your experience.

I was never ambitious, much to my parents' disgust, as I was considered a bit of a child prodigy. They would certainly consider that I have never achieved my potential, but I simply didn't care, and don't. I have always believed that if you can die knowing that you have been/are loved, have made a difference (in a good way) to someone's life, and hopefully left your part of the world a better place than it was before you entered it, then you have been a success.

Yes, I'm going to fulfil that kind of potential too henetha. Still got some plants sitting around that I bought last week. (the buying is the easy bit )

I'm going to fulfil my potential today by planting the plants I bought..
slightly concerned that frost is possible tonight.
Bank account? What bank account?

Good question, flick, and one similar to what I've been wondering since I posted on this thread, which is that although, with hindsight, I think I might have made some decisions that led me away from what I truly wanted (or thought I wanted) to do, everything I have done, I've done conscientiously and to the best of my ability, so in that sense I suppose I have fulfilled my potential. No point having regrets about what might have been. I learned from what I regard as my mistaken choices and hope that I have passed on that 'wisdom' to my offspring.

And I still have opportunities and things to learn....

Does anybody think they have fulfilled their potential, even those that achieve great things?

Ah yes - garden centres and buying plants - a route to happiness!! Is there anything left in your bank account!?

Thanks Ariadne, Mishap.... went to the garden centre and bought some summer plants... that cheered me up a bit.

henetha xx

I am not sure that "if onlys" are helpful in life. We do what we do at the time that we do it in good faith.

Sorry you are feeling gloomy this morning henetha - I am sure that in reality you have not "failed at everything" - I cannot imagine that there is anyone to whom that might apply. I hope that the day brightens up for you.

Sometimes we are victims of circumstance, or our upbringing etc. As Joni Mitchell said 'So many things I could have done but clouds got in my way'

Not sure that I ever had any potential to fulfil. When I look back I do feel that I've pretty much failed at everything really. So I am trying not to look back and am practising mindfullness... living in the moment.
It doesn't always work.
(sorry, feeling gloomy today).

I never think much about whether I fulfilled my potential. DH obviously does because he has said on more than one occasion that I never have. Lack of self-confidence was my biggest shortcoming and stopped me seizing opportunities which would have led to bigger things. But at the end of the day, I had good jobs when I did work, got to live abroad as an Army wife, met some fascinating people, and now in a comfortable retirement, we have everything we worked hard to achieve. What does bother me is that I don't think that my children have ever achieved their full potential, although they both have good jobs, homes of their own and, I hope, settled lives. I feel that DD could have made more of her university education and considerable skills, but she is comfortable in the job she has had for many years and she never had the confidence to go out and do something commensurate with her skills. DS, while in the RAF, was constantly being encouraged to take a commission, but never felt he was "officer material" despite everyone else thinking otherwise. It all comes down to confidence in the end.

I think I fulfilled my potential, more or less, after a bit of a shaky start - we had DD when I was 18 and Theseus was in the middle of Finals. She is 50 this year and so is our marriage..best mistake we ever made!

But it did mean I had to leave university quite quickly. "You can come back when it's all over, dear." Huh! But I did go back, albeit with three children in tow by then, and achieved nearly all the qualifications I had so desired, and built quite a successful career.

But it's my marriage, my DC and my 6 DGC who count so much more than all my bits of paper.

One of my favourite saying....

' Don't let what was or could have been, spoil what is or could be.'

In other words you can't change the past so make the most of what you can do and enjoy, now and in the future.

Besides, there's still time.

In answer to the OP: Yes – and more! I would have quite liked to do some other stuff – but it obviously wasn't a big deal or I would have done it.