What Percentage
of People Feel
Capable of More?
of working adults say they are capable of more than they are currently doing.
In a 2026 survey of more than 200 working adults, including over a hundred managers and executives, 92 percent said they were capable of more than they were currently doing. Not a quarter of them, and not the ones having a hard year. Almost all of them.
Why that number matters more than it looks
Most people who feel this way assume it is a private problem, something they are carrying that the people around them are not. That is the part the number quietly corrects, because if 92 percent of a room has the same feeling, then the feeling is not evidence about you at all. It is closer to the ordinary condition of being a working adult who is paying attention.
Which does not make it meaningless. A signal that common is worth listening to, and it is telling most people something real about the distance between what they are doing and what they could do. It just is not the private verdict people tend to treat it as.
If nearly everyone feels it, the feeling is not a diagnosis. It is a starting point.
What people said was stopping them
The more useful finding is the reason. When people named what stood between them and what they believed they were capable of, the answer at the top was not time and it was not opportunity, both of which are the reasons people usually give out loud.
| Finding | Result |
|---|---|
| Say they are capable of more | 92% |
| Name self-doubt as the barrier | 40% |
| Name fear of failure as the barrier | 37% |
| Second-guess themselves because of their internal voice | 85% |
Self-doubt came first, at 40 percent, with fear of failure close behind at 37 percent. Between them, that is more than three quarters of people pointing at something happening inside their own head rather than at their circumstances.
Leaders felt it more, not less
The part that surprised me most was what happened when the results were split by role. Having a title did not quiet any of this. People in leadership positions reported the gap between their current output and their potential more sharply than everyone else in the survey, and they still delayed acting on it at nearly the same rate as anyone.
Which is worth sitting with if you have ever assumed the confident people above you had worked something out that you had not. Mostly they had not. They were just further along in a race that feels the same from every position in it.
Sund, C. (2026). Untapped Potential Survey. You Are Capable of More.
Survey of more than 200 working adults, including over 100 managers and executives, conducted in 2026. Full findings and methodology are on the report page. Journalists and researchers are welcome to use these figures with attribution.
Common questions
What percentage of people feel they are capable of more?
92 percent. In a 2026 survey of more than 200 working adults, including over 100 managers and executives, 92 percent said they were capable of more than they were currently doing.
Is it normal to feel like you are not living up to your potential?
It is close to universal. At 92 percent, feeling capable of more is the ordinary condition rather than a sign something has gone wrong, though most people assume they are unusual in feeling it.
Do successful people feel this too?
Yes, and often more sharply. People in leadership roles reported the gap more intensely than everyone else, and still delayed action at nearly the same rate.
What is the main thing stopping people?
Self-doubt, named by 40 percent, ahead of fear of failure at 37 percent. Neither time nor opportunity topped the list, and 85 percent said they second-guess themselves because of their internal voice.
What do I do with this?
Start by naming which of the two it is for you, because they need different responses. Doubt about whether you can is answered by evidence, and evidence comes from acting first.
Ninety-two percent of people say they are capable of more, and most of them think they are the only one. The barrier they name is almost never opportunity. It is the voice in their own head, and that is a very different problem to solve.
The Full Report
Every finding from the survey of more than 200 working adults, plus the methodology behind the numbers on this page.
You Are Capable of More
Ten principles and a no-excuses playbook for becoming the person you know you’re capable of being. Available now in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle.