Capacity vs. Potential

Potential: 

1. Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent: a potential problem.

2. Having possibility, capability, or power.

 

Capacity:

1. The ability to receive, hold, or absorb.

2. The maximum amount that can be contained: 

3. Ability to perform or produce; capability.

Have you ever been told that you have great potential?   Potential?   Having potential for something is really the propensity for developing something that does not yet exist.  When someone says that you have potential, it may be that they see something in you that may attract something greater, later on.

Now, I do not mean to be negative about potential.   Or using potential as a way of complimenting someone.   On the positive side, you can see potential in someone like electrical potential.   When something is charged, like storm-clouds, there are several million electron volts of potential contained in that cloud.   Nothing may happen with this charge.   Or this charge may be slowly dissipated over time.   However, just the right conditions come up and suddenly, there is a flash of lightning, a crack of thunder.   This is potential.   In people, potential can mean the same thing.   Everything is there for something to happen, and just the right conditions may bring it out.  

I have heard so many stories of people who nobody thought would come through in a tough time, show courage, wisdom, love and compassion more so than they have ever done so.  A lightning release of their potential for being better than they were.

On the other hand, if we were to hear someone say to us that they see the capacity for something, it has a slightly different meaning.   If a truck has the capacity for 13 gallons in the gas tank, then it can contain 13 gallons.   Nothing stops it from doing so.   It was build that way.   However, if a truck has the potential for holding 15 gallons, it means that I have to go back to the dealer and get another gas tank that can contain two more gallons.   If a person has the capacity to do something, they already have the ability, but it may not be fully realized or fully used yet.

A great example of this concept is when Jesus told his disciples that they would heal the sick, give sight to the blind, perform miracles in his name.   This is a statement of capacity.   They may not have believed it, but Jesus saw that they had within them the ability to do these things. 

I know that I have the potential to live a fearless life.
I hope that I may come to believe that I have the capacity to live fearlessly.

I know that I have the potential to make love the cornerstone of every decision in my life.
I am beginning to believe that I have the capacity to make love the root of every decision.

I know that I have the potential to be a great teacher.
Slowly, I am realizing that I have the capacity to teach.

Potential - what may be, the lightning waiting to strike.
Capacity - what is, but may be better, bigger, more fully realized.