It is difficult to understand our potential without first realizing our potential

If we define potential as what we are individually capable of if our self-defined limits were removed, then it logically stands to reason that we are incapable of knowing what we are capable of. So, we have to rely on proleptic rationality: We must accept that what we are capable of is unknowable until we become the type of person that has the capacity to reach our potential. We just have to trust and have faith.

Anna Leptikon talks about this concept in her "The Unbearable Lightness of Lightness" article.