Potential isn’t a trophy. It’s a job offer, and it expires if you never clock in.

Being told you have potential feels like an achievement and is really a description of unspent capacity. It is good news, and on its own it converts into nothing, which is why so many people carry the compliment for years without ever cashing it. The word points at a future that still requires the ordinary work. Praise for what you might do is not payment for having done it.

Choose one place where you have been coasting on being capable and put real hours in this month. Capability with work behind it stops being potential and becomes something you can point at.