Taking the courage to take the first step is one of the toughest parts of starting something new. We have all been there— one moment we feel enthusiastic, but then the voice inside our heads creeps up our minds to silence our passion.
Some might live longer than others, but all of us have limited time on our hands. Regardless, we both know that it isn’t about how long we live but about what we do in our lives now that we are still alive.
Life is all about leaving things on the table while ensuring that we live up to our internal drive.
Unleashing your potential isn’t about doing what people and society think we should do with our lives— well unless you want to pursue empty goals and become restless. Chase your very own potential instead, forgetting things in the external.
The Killer Instinct
The killer instinct is the fierce, unwavering urge for domination amidst of struggle to attain a set goal. In ancient times, this trait is what drives us into the herd of potentially life-threatening prey, though unmatched and outnumbered.
But, with widespread modernization and technological innovation, could it be that we lost the same killer instinct that guaranteed the against-all-odds success of our early ancestors. Or maybe, it’s still there and was just waiting for the best moment to emerge? We can bet it’s the latter.
Deep down in the core of your DNA rests the killer instinct, sitting there like a stalking lion in the middle of tall grasses. However, the ‘killer instinct’ has a different face nowadays: commitment, dedication, and firm stand.
Unleashing Your Full Potential
Before, we used to sharpen our killer instinct on a day-to-day basis because we needed it to hunt for food in the forest. But nowadays, it’s pretty easy for our killer instinct to lay dormant in our day-to-day hustle since we no longer need it to get food. This does not mean that we need to let it sleep completely.
According to the Oxford dictionary, killer instinct is the “ruthless determination” to win and succeed. And this doesn’t only apply to hunting. Hence, harnessing your killer instinct is still necessary even though our everyday situation doesn’t really call for life or death situations.
Let’s take two motor racing driver groups as an example: one group has harnessed their killer instinct, and the other has not. Let’s call one Pacers and the other, Racers.
Pacers is the cluster of drivers who have not honed and unleashed their killer instinct, while Racers includes people who have. Both sides surely don’t want to lose, but there’s a thin line that separates the two: Pacers want to win, and Racers have to win by any necessary means.
If you talked to motor racing participants who didn’t win the race, you would notice that they would either be disheartened yet content for, at least, finishing the race or devastated as if they have no option but to win.
Essentially, this only shows that winning is perceived as an “excellent outcome” by Pacers, but Racers looks at it as if it’s the “only acceptable outcome.”
What propels the Racers to success is their sheer hatred of losing and the absolute necessity of winning. This is what drives them to push their performance to the highest possible level. Racers are the epitome of individuals who have the killer instinct to win.
Is Killer Instinct Healthy?
Competition is always present, whether at a high or low professional level, and this is what restricts a person’s killer instinct. We could bet that not everyone would find it amusing when they see their colleagues displaying a killer instinct at a simple company team-building barbecue. Perhaps, that would seem a bit excessive for most people.
But is it really a bad thing? This is for you to decide.
In every situation, ask yourself whether you just want to have fun or truly win. Learn how to choose your battles, and once you have decided, give it everything you’ve got. Equip yourself with knowledge on how you could strike at the perfect and optimal way you could do it.
Do you still have memories of when you first tried to flip a pancake in a frying pan? Surely, have messed up, sending the pancake too high and creating an aerial kitchen disaster. On the second attempt, you succeeded but still have some aspects of working on.
And eventually, as you continuously try to do it, you realize that you’re getting better and better. This is because you have learned your lessons and harnessed your intuitiveness in order to choose the perfect moment to flip.
What we can learn from this is the importance of recreating a system over and over again. Practice helps people get the precise method of execution of a killer instinct, and this system is applicable on a much larger scale.
Thomas Edison, one of the greatest investors of all time, is one of the people who exhibited killer instinct. According to him, he had over 10,000 unsuccessful attempts before finally inventing the light bulb.
Imagine having to face thousands of failures for one single success. If it wasn’t for his killer instinct, he might have given up along the way.
Emotions and obstacles will also play a big role in blossoming your killer instinct.
The road will not always be smooth, traffic lights won’t always be green, and there will sometimes be a wall you need to climb over. Regardless of all of these, giving up should never be of your options.
If your emotions keep kicking in, you need to acknowledge them but never allow them to slow down your progress. Instead, use them to fuel your fire. Miyamoto Musashi, a 16th-century Japanese swords master, once said, “Whatever state of mind you are in, think only of cutting.”
Harnessing your killer instinct in the business world is critically as important as harnessing it in the world of competitive sport. The capitalist world is fast-paced and cruel. The competition is extreme because everyone is doing everything in their power to hinder another from succeeding.
If you are in this dog-eat-dog field, you need to work harder and be smarter than everyone else in order to beat them at the top. Don’t let sympathy for your competitors get ahead of you. Remember that most people who consider others’ success often make it themselves.
Your killer instinct is not something you should be afraid of because it is an excellent skill rooted in each and every person in the world. Unleashing your killer instinct should come first if you want to unleash your full potential.
