Have you missed the “potential”?

[Z-A]

Is an irreversible and/or missed opportunity(ies) the reason or one of the reasons that brought you to this point? Feel free to share your experiences if you want.

 

[deathproof17]

What do you mean by the potential? Your potential to succeed in life?

 

[Z-A]

What do you mean by the potential? Your potential to succeed in life?

Anything you'd consider a success. What felt like a wasted potential that you regret now.

 

[ScaredOfMachines]

Never really had one. I have one talent that can't be pursued anymore, and a ton of failures whenever I tried to apply myself at anything else. Failed at pretty much everything- relationships, work, hobbies, and the one thing I gave my all to was never really meant to be.

I like your pfp by the @Z-A. I really need to get caught back up on the manga.

 

[cowboypants]

I definitely missed my mark. I couldn't even hit a bare minimum stature in life from career to anything. Despite my ability to learn things reach the surface in some areas

I have low self esteem because of my childhood mainly cause of my dad, who still compares and put me down at every opportunity i couldn't grow out of it

 

[ijustwishtodie]

I never had one and, even if I did, I have no desire to achieve it. I'd rather just be dead

 

[itswhatits]

Yeah, most of my life feels like wasted potential. I had the head to do pretty well in college, but a mixture of an inability to self-regulate, COVID, and perpetual depression and isolation meant that I just couldn't hack it.

Honestly, I think if circumstances were different, I could have had a decent life. Could have had more friends, could have fallen in love. Could have gotten laid from more than just Grindr. Could have been more, could have actually accomplished things. Oh well. Nothing left for me to do but to close out my 20's an abject failure, and make myself a shotgun dinner in my 30's. Ffffffffffuck it.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I don't believe I ever had any potential but so many people have been telling me I have a lot of it my whole life but I just don't see it.

 

[ElVato]

I don't know how prevalent this is, but everybody has always always told me I'm gifted, that I had a lot of potential. Even now, people tend to praise me a lot.

To be honest, I don't think I'm that good. I do have a great memory, but I've never seen where they get all that potential thing from.

A couple weeks ago, my psychiatrist was kind of heartbroken when he reminisced about the me that he met 10 years ago vs the current me. He kept saying "where is that guy, that guy with so many talents".

It made me feel a bit worse I think. It's just that, because I have zero hopes and expectations, I was sort of unmoved by his comment: I don't care where "that guy" went. I don't exactly miss a past instance. My disdain for life is for the present and future, not because what was.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I'd say I've somewhat fulfilled my potential in life. Through a mixture of good and bad luck and, hard work- inheritance money enabled me to study something I enjoyed. Not sure that's exactly good luck though- close relatives died early on in my life. I worked very hard at it but- that's also because it became a kind of coping mechanism from early on. I haven't maybe climbed as high as I would have liked in my career but then, I probably don't have the talent to- being realistic about it!

I think I had the potential to be in a loving relationship which I never experienced. Sort of with a best friend to an extent but, that would maybe have been nice to experience I think. I didn't work hard enough at that side of my life though and also realistically- I don't have the looks to do that well!

 

[Morte]

My peak potential would be to get good grades at school, go to college, to maybe get a good paying job, still a slave to the system.
I could never be great at anything, im not missing much then.

 

[FuneralCry]

No and personally I just don't see existence as something desirable in the first place, human existence just feels like a mistake to me. I just wish I could die in peace and forget about it all, the way I see it all that existence has potential for is to cause immense amounts of suffering and harm with no limit as to how much agony one can feel which is certainly why I just wish for death as only in non-existence am I unable to suffer.

 

[PlannedforPeru]

Depends on what the potential is for, I know you mentioned success but that's different for each person. I'm still young, luck permitting I could probably rise more to meet the bar for success to some, for others I may have already. Given my fitness and age my window to join the Navy Seals is narrowing, so I guess I missed the potential for that if it's someone's idea of success.

All this being said is that I could've had the potential to achieve other's dreams, but it wouldn't have brought me any closer to emotional fulfillment which is where my potential is concerned. My subjective potential isn't a fixed goalpost, it'll continue to reach new heights as I've passed previous ones. I'll believe I've left potential on the table even when unbeknownst to me my natural limit is reached. Additionally, the potential for things isn't linear; in choosing a path, you reject all of the non-chosen ones, and in that more potential not seized.

 

[brokeandbroken]

Is an irreversible and/or missed opportunity(ies) the reason or one of the reasons that brought you to this point? Feel free to share your experiences if you want.

Mine was stolen from me. I no longer have the potential well for anything. No one will give me any opportunities. If I had an honest opportunity I probably wouldn't be on here. My opportunity is to be basically homeless for the duration of the rest of my life. An outcast for no reason. Just exiled from society.

 

[cotton]

Yeah things went wrong it's why I'm unhappy isn't that completely obvious!?

 

[EvisceratedJester]

One of the few good things about being me is that I never had any potential to miss, so no regrets in that department.

 

[Tuonetar_]

I've squandered a lot of great opportunities in my past, and I've lost the desire or willpower to achieve much else in the present or future, so I think all of my potential will continue to be squandered.