You may have noticed the colour switch of the blog from purple to blue. If you haven’t noticed, don’t worry – it used to be purple and now it’s blue (it now matches my eyes). This is interesting timing, because I’ve been kinda down for the last couple of weeks since coming back from my trip to Stockholm.

I’ve been in a slow feeling, nap taking, schlepping around, not-doing-much, puffy-eyed, hayfever funk, and haven’t been in the best of moods. I’ve finished at the London ad agency and the change in pace and lifestyle has been marked.

This me-not-being-at-my-best period also ties in with a post I’ve been following over at Brazen Careerist, where there’s been a discussion about whether living up to your potential is something valid, or if it’s just a bunch of BS, which stirred me and spurred me to add my two-penneth.

Does the last couple of weeks mean that I haven’t been living up to my potential? Well, if you look at just the last couple of weeks, then sure, I haven’t been living up to my potential. It’s been tough making myself get out of bed, I’ve been watching too much TV and I haven’t accomplished much of anything.

But if you look at it in a broader sense, then I know that this time is necessary so that I can live up to my potential. It’s a continuum, not a series of starts and stops.

In her post Penelope talks about how getting out of bed each day is an act of faith for many of us, and I completely recognise that. Life is hard. Sometimes it takes a huge amount of effort to go about your day with any kind of gusto, and feeling like good things are happening and knowing that you’re doing well seem a world away.

But at the other end of the ‘realising your potential scale’, why not ask an Olympic medalist whether it was worth realising their potential? You can bet they’ll tell you how tough it’s been, how bloody hard they’ve worked and how many sacrifices they’ve made. But having watched a couple of medalists being interviewed, just look at how alive they are knowing they’ve nailed it.

Does the fact that I’m feeling pretty crappy and can’t compete with an Olympic medalist mean that I should forget about living up to my potential?

No. Not a bit of it.

Feel free to forget about what the self-help industry has preached for too long – life isn’t about competition and it isn’t about achieving goals – if you think it is then I’m sorry to point out that you’re missing the point.

But – and this is a big but – without the concept of living up to your potential there’s a lack of meaning, and it’s by engaging with the things that mean something that we step into whatever potential we have.

This is the whole point of what I do – to take people to a point where they know what matters to them and build their natural confidence so that they’re able to engage with those things without worrying or second-guessing. That’s truly confident living. Say it with me.

The tipping point isn’t being kind or nice as Penelope suggests, but making a deep choice about what matters and having the self-awareness, self-esteem and self-confidence to prioritise those things.

It’s not easy. It takes guts, it can be bloody hard and sometimes it just plain sucks, but if you’re participating in what matters and what has meaning to you, it doesn’t matter a jot if you have a down period or feel blue sometimes in the middle.

Are you living up to your potential or do you think it’s a bunch of hoo-ey?

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