Human Potential in Canberra

"I would like to be remembered as someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability." Ruth Bader Ginsburg

In November 2020, Yellow Edge endeavoured to uncover how Canberrans felt about their personal potential. We surveyed 456 Canberrans by phone to better understand how much they felt they had already realised, how much they thought they would fulfil in their life, the drivers, and barriers to realising their full potential and the role Canberra plays in people developing and realising their potential. 

 This is the 2nd edition of the State of our Potential. The 1st edition was launched in early 2020 and whilst the survey has a real Canberra feel, the insights will resonate with our state/territory counterparts and Australians more broadly.

 Despite the impact of COVID-19, the journey to realising our personal potential remains positive for Canberrans. We found:

• We realised more of our personal potential in 2020 (up 3% from 2019 to 69%) with females more likely to feel they had realised slightly more of their potential.
• We have high expectations of achieving our potential. Just 8% felt they would only achieve less than 70% of their potential in their lifetime. Those in their 50s were the most optimistic.
• Compared to those living in other states and territories, we have felt less personal impact and our overall life satisfaction is almost back to pre-COVID levels. 
•  We felt we had the about the right amount of purpose (77%), responsibility (73%) and reward (70%) in our lives and saw small gains in energy (53%) and time (43%) compared to 2019.
• Those reporting a higher degree of realised potential were driven by intrinsic motivators such as personal beliefs and values, feeling content and happy, and family life. More pragmatic external considerations such as work, financial stability were particular drivers of younger respondents.
•  There were perennial barriers to achieving potential which cut across genders and all age groups. They related a person’s physical and mental health, the cost of living, the amount of time in their lives and their employment status.
•  We had increased positive perceptions of Canberra with two-thirds of all respondents (67%) and almost three-quarters (72%) of females reporting that Canberra offers them the best opportunity to fulfil their potential.  

"From a leader's perspective, the most serious betrayal has to do with thwarting human potential, with quenching the spirit, with failing to deal equitably with each other as human beings." Max De Pree