The New Year is around the corner and it’s about that time everyone starts to think about their New Year’s resolutions. I hate New Year’s resolutions, but I guess they are derived from good intent.They get people on their feet and instill some new-found purpose in them. At the very least they are a great marketing scheme for gyms and fitness centers around the world. I hope your resolution lasts forever and not the standard three weeks. Either way, here is some juice for the ride into 2014.

1/2 mv^2

 “He has potential”

“She’s going to be successful”

“He’s burnt out”

“You’re gonna go far kid”

Whether you hear it or not, everyday someone, somehow predicts our or someone else’s future. Is it that easy to see what we’re made of? Is it that easy to predict? Why don’t people just start placing bets if it’s so easy? Maybe someone should start a company that invests in people so everyone can put their money where their mouth is.

You can’t say that the Eagle Scout and valedictorian are going to be successful just as much as you can’t say that the high school dropout is going to work minimum wage for the rest of his life. Even if you could place bets, you probably wouldn’t because this is life and you can never be too sure about anything. Investing in companies is easy. Check the financial statements, read up on some news, have a hunch and you’re done. It’s easy to explain what went wrong with a company that dips 10% in a day but how do you explain a person with a full scholarship at a top business school and the brightest future giving it all up to a drug addiction? How do you explain multimillion dollar high school dropouts and billionaire college dropouts? What about CEOs of Fortune 500 companies that went to community college?

Go ahead. Explain. Give us your fundamental analysis on the matter. Please use your incredible gift of judgment and place a bet on someone’s future. I’ll gladly take the other side of that bet with the right odds because you can’t predict anyone’s future any better than can your own. You can’t make judgment because there is something that exists in people that can’t be measured, it can’t be charted or graphed, and it can’t be analyzed by any traditional means. It’s called heart, drive, ambition, motivation, juice… Whatever it is that you want to call it; it’s an energy that exists within us that can’t be quantified. It’s that “potential” they speak of. That energy that some people allegedly have and others don’t. I’m sorry to break the news but EVERYONE has potential. And potential is not necessarily a good thing.

By definition:

Potential energy (n.): The energy of a particle or system of particles derived from position, or condition, rather than motion. A raised weight, coiled spring, or charged battery has potential energy.

What use is something at rest? What interest do you have in a motorcycle that’s turned off? Do you picture yourself sitting on it and taking selfies for your super badass Instagram @MotoCyclfie? NO! You picture yourself riding it, going fast, blazing through traffic. You picture it in motion. You picture its kinetic energy. We’re all interested in movement, not rest. So why do we place so much value on someone that has “potential?” Everything and everyone has potential. It’s when they start moving that it matters; which direction they’re moving in and how they decide to expend that energy. Potential might mean something to some people, buts its “going kinetic” that matters.

We’re all balls of potential energy waiting to be expended. Some people have more potential than others and everyone uses their energy differently so there’s no predicting a path. Someone might have all of the potential in the world to be great but focuses on expending their energy on drugs and partying before they inevitably burn out (burning out is definitely possible – cars run out of fuel and so do humans). Some people go kinetic early on and give it everything they have (sprint, if you will). Others take it slow and then wait for the right time to go kinetic. Others keep a slow and steady flow of kinetic energy; not too much to avoid burning out and not too little to avoid never moving at all.

It all depends on your style. If you sprint, you risk getting tired too quickly. If you coast, you’re just balancing and you may never realize your full “potential”. If you’re a procrastinator by nature and you’re waiting for the “road ahead” to make your run for it, you risk never making it at all. Because there is no bigger sin in life than a ball of energy losing its glow of life before it ever had the opportunity to “go kinetic” and show the world what it was made of. And on the contrary, if you wait until later to “go kinetic” you may very well propel yourself past the finish line and make for a nice ending; knowing that you gave it your all and finally finding out what you’re capable of. Some people cross the finish line and live on with the satisfaction of knowing they finished the race, some people never stop moving forward, and some people never start moving at all. It’s your move, your “potential,” expel it how you want to. Just know that everyone has it and you’re not capable of accomplishing anything with it if you never start moving. Stop talking, start doing, and “go kinetic”.

Kinetic energy (n.): The energy of a body or a system with respect to the motion of the body. Kinetic energy is an expression of the fact that a moving object can do work on anything it hits; it quantifies the amount of work the object could do as a result of its motion.

Have a happy New Year 🙂

PS: The title of this post is the formula for kinetic energy….Mind = BLOWN!!!!