Seek The Expansive in Your Potential
Level 6: Grand Master Player
Future Guardian,
Amongst the greatest wisdom shared with us by Dr. Jeff Spencer1 is his perspective and understanding of potential.
Without going deep into Dr. Jeff Spencer's story (which you can dip into here), he well tell you that he has spent his entire life what limits and builds potential.
At last year's Gray Wolf Summit, Dr. Jeff Spencer shared with us his latest perspective on understanding and accessing our potentials, and how to live the greatest life that we possibly can, to give the best of what we've got which no one else in creation can give but us.
Today I'd like to gift this understanding from Dr. Jeff, to you.
What do you think about when you think about "potential?"
We talk about it quite a bit here. You could say that one of the core goals of The Guardian Academy is to help you find your greatest potential and live a life around that.
But what does potential mean?
We can look at strict definitions - "capable of being but not yet in existence" - and from a scientific perspective on potential energy "energy stored in a system."
So from a personal point of view, perhaps that means potential is the greatest unrevealed energy of our full and complete unique selves impacting the world and those around us.
(Ps. that means it's there, yet un-accessed)
Maybe you have a different idea of what potential means.
But when we seek potential,
What are we usually seeking?
Some potential?
A smattering?
Just a sprinkle of my potential into the day?
Naw,
Usually we're talking about this like access your "full potential."
In fact, that's how we have historically talked about it, how I've written about it, etc.
Here’s a few: Keeping You From Your Full Potential2, The Learning Lens: Identifying Your Potential3, The Phases Of Engaging The Field & "Full Potential"4, Opening The Door For Your Full Potential5 (and more, just search “potential” on TGA substack)
In short, we’ve talked about using your Known Potential, revealing your Unknown Potential, and from this emerges your Full Potential.
That dynamic can still be seen, but there is much more nuance to be discovered, and critically a missing dynamic of life.
What we're going to find is that "potential" is not a clear, defined, dogmatic state of being. "Full potential" suggests that you fill up all your potential and then you are there, you have it.
Turns out,
Not only is there not a strict endpoint, but envisioning your potential as a bucket to fill is actually limiting to your real potential.
We'll get into that in a moment.
First, I have a task for you to do before you continue reading. I know some of you reading this are going to get to this point and be like "what, EFFORT? naw" and split, and some of you are gonna skim right over this and keep reading.
Fine. But consider that DOING is a necessary component of learning. (As we have so endlessly emphasized here)6
So here's what I want you to do.
Imagine Dr. Jeff Spencer standing before you right now, and he is saying these words, deliberately, with emphasis on the importance OF them.
Hear his voice - these are his words:
"Go now. Take 1 minute, and write down exactly what life would be like if you played at your full potential. You're not going to apply any *practicality* to what it is you are doing to declare. You're going to declare what it *really is* that you want to declare. Do we have an agreement? Sometimes we come up short, thinking we can't say what we want to say because we don't know if we can get there. That does not apply here. Unrestricted - what it is that you believe you would be able to do if you were a full potential player?"
What does Dr Jeff Spencer expect you to go do right now?
He's watching.
Go do the work, then come back and read.
At the end of this article I share with you what *my* answer was to this question - because Dr. Jeff had us do this exercise at Gray Wolf Summit. We got together in groups of 3 strangers and talked about what we imagined what our life would be like played at our full potential.
Now we get into "The Potentials."
This is 100% Dr. Jeff Spencer, I am merely a conduit of perception. That being said ... once you have an understanding of this, there will be an obvious question. To that, I will provide *my answer.*
The 4 Potentials
There are 4 types of potentials which create a puzzle. They interact continuously with each other.
How they interact with each other will determine our capacity to manifest our potential.
Potential not manifest is (my words), a life not fully lived.
1 - Partial Potential
This is the first type of potential because this is what most people have. They are not "full potential" players they are partial potential players.
Here's how Dr. Jeff presents this visually:
This is the "potential puzzle." Each of the filled blocks represent a known part of you. There's a missing piece, and therefore it is partially filled.
Most people who seek to meet their full potential actually only hit this spot, and they limp along in life at 80-90% of their fullest potential. They also get stuck here, but more on that in a moment.
2 - Exponential Potential
This is what most people call "full potential." And we've still been using that language of "full potential" because this is how most people think about it. This is almost certainly how YOU have been thinking about your potential.
But Dr. Jeff Spencer calls this Exponential Potential.
Here's how Dr. Jeff presents Exponential Potential.
You can see that not only is the puzzle filled, but it's also much larger.
Because it turns out there are many octaves ABOVE "full."
It's not just that you completed your potential when you hit this point, it's that everything expands to be greater than it previously appeared to be. Filling the potential puzzle reveals this exponential state.
It's an expansive possibility once you arrive.
Here you are "playing at 100%," but what that means in reality is multiples of your own capability which are much much higher than you can ever conceive of.
"I understand why astronauts come back from the moon looking at the earth and they can't look at life ever the same again ... it opens up an expansive possibility based on an experience which you can't unsee." - Dr. Jeff Spencer
One of the interesting things about this dynamic is that it's really impossible to preconceive what your exponential potential will be like. You have to step into it, experience the expansiveness, see what can't be unseen and THEN you're reality will be forever shifted.
As Dr. Jeff says ...
"This puts pressure on describing in advance what we can perceive as possible and true."
Which is how most people approach trying to figure out their full potential. They imagine a life where they are living their full potential and then start to head towards that life.
BUT
You can't know what your potential capability is going to expand into until you find that last missing piece which reveals your exponential potential. Your reality and how you chose to live in it may very well change completely once you hit this point.
So, How do we go from partial to exponential?
This is the real puzzle to figure out. If we understand in ourselves how to move from partial potential to Exponential Potential, that gives us the possibility of creating an Exponential Life - for a lifetime.
You'll see toward the end why this particular skill is so important.
Here's a thing about our potentials.
There is no blood test to reveal what they are. You can't go into a doctors office, get some blood drawn, or answer a particular set of questions to figure this out. There's no personality identity test which is going to tell you what they are.
Potentials are only revealed over time, showing up as you do things.
Does that sound familiar?
You must Engage the Field for your potentials to emerge.
BUT
There's a trap in "doing" which many people fall into.
The Full Potential Illusion
Dr. Jeff Spencer calls this "The Hustler's Hoax."
Those who seek their full potential will often fall into the belief that if they try harder, if they increase the details, if they push on all the different components they are going to be able to take what they have and grow it up to full potential.
The problem really is that when we press harder and go deeper and we try more and more, what happens is you cannot take something which is already maxed out and get any more out of it.
See that diagram?
We're in partial potential here. And what most people do is they keep pushing on all the pieces of that puzzle trying to do more.
But each of those other filled pieces are complete. They CANNOT be filled more than they are. The only way to get from this point to The Exponential isn't to push harder on what's already at capacity, it's to find the missing piece.
There's a missing potential which hasn't been found yet, you're pushing hard on things which can't go anymore.
When we're pushing forward in life, but unable to move forward, its most likely because of this dynamic. We have the sense that there is more we can do, more potential in us, but we're pushing on the things which are already maxed out.
What then happens is, when you push hard on those potentials to make up for the sense that you aren't moving forward, you inevitably come to the conclusion that your partial potential IS your full potential. You aren't able to put more into what you're doing - it's not possible.
This is the illusion. This is how you get trapped for years and lifetimes within partial potential. Pushing forever on what is already maxed out and believing "this is it, this is all I have to offer."
The sad reality then is we end up backing off living a lesser life. AND we live it in despair because we know deep down we're capable of more. We've just tricked ourselves into thinking there is no more or that we can't get there.
"We all have the capacity to give the best of what we've got which no one can give in all of creation except YOU." - Dr. Jeff Spencer
So,
The only way to move from Partial to Exponential, is to find the missing piece.
3 - Invisible Potential
This is the 3rd kind of potential. The invisible. The one we can't see which we need to discover in order to bring ourselves into Exponential Potential.
Every one of us has potential in us which we cannot see.
So we need a mechanism to make the invisible visible.
We have to FIND the missing potential.
When we insert the missing piece into the partial potential puzzle, it instantly blows up into the exponential, performing greater than the sum of the parts.
Discovering this invisible potential is an emergent property of doing. And doing in a way which reveals new potential that brings us to something much greater and exponential. It's not about doing more with what we have, it's about doing in a way that we allow ourselves conscious awareness of that search for The Exponential.
It's also key to understand that this isn't just finding more parts to your partial potential puzzle. It's finding the right missing part, so that there is harmony in the system. It does no good to find another potential that has no harmony with the rest of the parts.
"You want the fewest number of right parts together, which creates Harmony." - Dr. Jeff Spencer
When you have harmony among the parts you automatically go from Partial to Exponential.
Therefore the invisible potential is a piece of the puzzle which is harmonious with all the other pieces and instantaneously shifts you into the exponential.
4 - Change Potential
There are 2 things we experience in this dimension of life which is how all of this is put together.
Change is part of our existence. You can't stop it. These are the two we're looking at:
There's personal change. This is what happens with you over time. Time marches on, we grow, we change - in all the ways possible (physical, mental, spiritual).
There's societal and cultural change. This is life happening around us. We have no control over what happens with culture and society. We can contribute to it, but ultimately we don't get to choose what happens with it.
So what happens with this Potential Puzzle is, because of change, all the different potentials that work together in harmony to complete the partial potential puzzle which goes exponential, starts to become irrelevant, because the change makes some of the parts no longer relevant.
When we lose a potential which creates the exponential output we revert back to partial.
That means we need to repeat the process.
Dr. Jeff calls this "The Exponential Potential Puzzle Cycle."
All the good stuff doesn't perpetuate ... it requires energy to maintain otherwise it reverts.
So The Exponential Puzzle does not self perpetuate.
A beautiful living tree will only keep living and providing to the environment around it if it continues to get the nutrients it needs from it's environment - if it continues to remain healthy and unaffected by disease and outside influence (like a fire). When that system of maintaining the tree falls ... it falls, and decomposes, and reverts.
That's where everything wants to go eventually - and if the cycle continues new life and potential grows from that.
Life itself is a cycle of harmonious exponential potentials.
This ultimately brings us back to your capability to create an exponential life. Because it's not about finding your full potential, or even your exponential potential, and keeping it.
It's about living through this harmonious cycle of life.
Always looking for the missing piece, to create the exponential and expansive life that you are always capable of creating.
To hold this together, I find it helpful to have mechanisms we can rely on. Especially when it comes to finding the missing piece. If you become adept at finding the missing piece and really knowing how to move from Partial to Exponential potential, then you'll always be equipped to life an exponential life even when change happens.
The above is almost entirely taken from Dr. Jeff Spencer's presentation on Exponential Potential at The Gray Wolf Summit (with some of my perspective and understanding added).
Now I'd like to share with you my personal takeaway,
And the mechanism I have discovered for identifying the invisible potential, and intentionally moving from Partial to Exponential Potential.
When I saw that diagram, and listened to Dr. Jeff talk, I thought through all the things I do and have done, all the places I have pushed and moved forward with, and I could feel that sense of a wall.
Those places where I pushed hard and nothing happened.
Because those potentials were full and complete. Not exponential. Not expansive.
But,
There was ONE place,
Which felt completely different.
One thing I do, have done, and constantly return to, which feels like unending expansiveness when I step into it. A place where I *never* feel like I've found completion, where I always discover something new, which feels as satisfying as the deep breath of life.
Seek The Expansive
Here's the note I made to myself at Gray Wolf Summit:
"I'm not maxed out on my ability to write and communicated, but I AM restricting my ability to let that grow by believing I need to do other things."
I came to this after answering my question for what "full potential" life looked like. I went through a couple variations but in embracing Dr. Jeff's call to unrestricted vision, I came to the conclusion that I just want to be like the wizard on the mountain who few people know about but who go to for things no one else can manage to do, and there I'll have a quiet life with my family, tending to the world around me, and writing.
The imagery of it tipped me off and lead to understanding what currently is the piece leading me to my Exponential Potential.
It's in the writing.
For me.
My expansive exponential potential lies in the writing. Every time I've come back to focus more and more on that practice, everything new and great in my life has grown and expanded.
Every time things seem to slow and hit a wall ...
It's because I've restricted my ability to let that expand and fill all the possible space and energy it can, in the face of feeling like I need to do other things.
This is my perspective on how to find your exponential potential.
Seek what is EXPANSIVE.
I'm not sure I can do it justice in words to express how it feels.
But I do believe if you find the present moment within yourself, you can search through all the things you do and all the things you've done, and find the one thing which pops out as ever expanding, ever expressive, ever illuminating.
Like the universe exploding outward in unending creation.
Every other thing feels like a dead end. Like a wall. Like a limitation. Like walking through quickly drying cement.
But not The Expansive.
The Expansive wants to carry me away and never look back. The Expansive lifts me above where I am now and feeds everything else I'm doing in a way that is almost inexplicable but undeniable.
When I put more time and energy into writing, even when it seems like I should be spending my time doing other things, no matter what, something happens which wouldn't have happened otherwise. It's like time and possibility expand around me when I go into this space and do this thing.
Seek what is in you which feels expansive.
Like every time you step into doing the thing it grows and you feel an unending sense of ability and discovery in the path.
But Remember the Change
For myself personally it's difficult to imagine that I will find anything else in life as exponential potential. But I know that there will be change.
I will change.
The world will change.
How I interact and contribute and feed the life around me will change.
So I don't focus on the thing.
I focus on The Expansiveness.
For me right now that is something I can see, something I can feel, something I can always be aware of and seek because I know that returning to Partial Potential is an inevitable path on life.
Just as the mastery of The Champion's Mind is not always being there, not having arrived, but rather in recognizing when we're in The Human Mindset and making the conscious choice to move our present selves into the space we really desire.
The way I see it, it's the same with Exponential Potential.
It's not a bucket to be filled,
But rather a state of being which we can return to with present awareness of our expansive gifts.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of being in the room with Dr. Jeff Spencer and learning from him, I have two recommendations for you.
The first is Dr. Jeff Spencer’s Champion’s Perfect Day7 - an invaluable resource in navigating your daily energy. If you want to seek your Exponential Potential, you’re going to want every day to matter as much as possible.
The other is in The Arena8. Every 2nd Thursday of the month we host a special Dr. Jeff Spencer Arena call, where Dr. Jeff sits as our cornerman. Every Arena member can show up and get actionable and valuable direct guidance from Dr. Jeff himself.
Come join us, and together we’ll find our Exponential Potential.
Be Useful. Be Present. Love the Journey.
Joseph Robertson, CMO The Guardian Academy
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Haven’t experienced the privilege of learning this directly from Dr. Jeff, but felt like he was speaking to me through this piece, Joseph. Insightful and inspiring. Thank you, sir!
Wow, this is a great article and gave me lots of ideas about the expansion of potential! Right on track with my current journey. thanks for sharing Dr Jeff's wisdom through your wisdom.