
Do You Have Any Potential?
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Anyway enough of that and on with today’s guest post from Gary Stokes
Do You Have Any Potential?
I was smiling to take the edge off my impertinent question.
My friend, Ben, had just told me about his inability to change despite increasing evidence that he is in a crisis of physical deterioration.
He is obese. He has diabetes but eats enormous amounts of sugar, he sheepishly admits. His knees are in chronic pain and he has considered knee replacement. His feet hurt.
He sleeps too much, his wife adds as she listens to our conversation.
He says he knows he should exercise, but he doesn’t do it. He says he knows that he should change his high carb diet, but he doesn’t do it.
He worries that he is in a scary decline, but can’t seem to do what must be done to halt and maybe reverse the decline.
He says that he still has his life-long anxiety about running out of money, even though he is rich now. “He’s always had that worry ever since I’ve known him,” his wife agrees.
I have heard this same narrative from them many times and always encourage Ben to change, start exercising and eating right.
I’m loving about it—really—unfailingly positive about the potential good things that could come with some new healthy habits.
But now I ask, “Do you have any potential?”
Ben doesn’t answer but his wife asks, “Well, doesn’t everybody have potential?”
“Theoretically, yes,” I say, “but only if the person sees the potential and is willing to change his thinking and behavior to reach it. As a practical matter, people who won’t learn and change have no potential.”
What Is Potential?
Potential is where we’re headed with our investments in growth and development. Our potential is the yet un-manifested ability or capacity to do or to understand.
Cosmologists say that we live in a universe that has potential.
The universe, they observe, is a creative dynamo, changing, self-organizing to adapt, and evolving toward its potential.
They note that potential is more likely to manifest in some places in the universe than in other places.
Spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way evolve toward potential better than elliptical (egg-shaped) galaxies where most stars are doomed, dieing out without creating new stars.
I reluctantly see my friend, Ben, as an elliptical galaxy without potential, a star who is dieing.
But spiral galaxies are home to stars that give birth to new stars in an incredible, never-ending creative act of achieving potential.
According to cosmologist, Brian, Swimm, in Journey of the Universe:
“This womb of intense creativity gives birth to the elements that eventually form our planet and our bodies. Much of the matter of our bodies passed through such an intense and vast explosion.”
Therefore, many of us—as elements of the universe, the children of stars—have potential.
Potential isn’t energy or any form of matter.
It is, instead, more akin to an idea that hovers somewhere within our reach awaiting our attention and action.
It’s real and can be brought into visible and measurable manifestation by any person and by communal attention and action as well.
For each of us, potential is an idea or set of possibilities that await out exploration and investment.
We are able to detect our potential with attention and we are able to manifest it with our investments.
As a Practical Matter, Our Potential Depends on Our Level of Consciousness
As a coach, I wonder why many—probably most— people I know never mention their potential.
The majority of human beings at this point in our evolution are only living in a very modest state of possibility.
Most people have not conquered their fears, so they can’t easily detect their potential. They are too busy surviving in a difficult world.
Fears may sometimes energize people to action that manifests their potential, but usually fears only cloud any clarity about what is possible and siphon off energy that could be invested in an expanded life.
Because the evidence of human folly is so great, cynics and the profoundly pessimistic claim that our species—like the stars in elliptical galaxies—is doomed.
But there is a significant portion of humans whose consciousness allows them to live in possibility.
They are able to see their own potential even when they face immense challenges.
They are able to see the potential in others even when those others don’t see it in themselves.
They are able to see the potential of the human species, even as we flirt with global disaster.
The most conscious people on earth are in a constant state of intentional investment in their own potential and the potential of the human species.
Their investments in potential are love in action.
Maybe the great surge in the number of Life Coaches is one bit of hopeful evidence of human awakening.
More and more people on the earth have glimmerings about their potential and are looking for conscious people to partner with them.
How Do You Know if You Have Any Potential?
We manifest our potential when:
- We have at least some clarity about what wants to emerge in our lives, what is demanding our attention, what won’t leave us alone because it represents a wonderful possibility.
- We are making disciplined investments in manifesting our potential. We remember what we want, and we focus our thinking and behavior to be in alignment with attractive possibilities.
- We have developed a relationship or relationships with conscious people who are living in possibility too. We’re talking to each other about each other’s potential, encouraging, and supporting each other in a joyful process of love.
- We are building a sure confidence in the reality of human potential and the nearly guaranteed success of investments in what wants to emerge in us.
- We know that we will swing back and forth between consciousness and unconsciousness, forgetting sometimes what we’re moving toward. We will get temporarily stuck. But we will get clear again about the next level of our potential and renew our investments in possibility.
Keep the Universe in Mind
Lately, this dazzling, exploding, evolving universe is the frame for my daily life.
As the universe blooms into its potential, I bloom into mine with more clarity, focus, and confidence. I feel attached to larger forces.
I worry less and less about the dark human news of the day. After all, the universe, too, is a violent place.
What won’t or can’t evolve in the universe is destroyed, but its potential is always given the energy it needs to adapt, create, and expand.
Given the laws of physics, it looks like our potential must emerge.
Gary Stokes explores issues of consciousness on his blog, The Poised Life. He is a coach to leaders and the author of the book, Poise: A Warrior’s Guide.
Image Courtesy of Adam Evans
ERIC, THANKS FOR THE REMINDER THAT THE LAW OF PHYSICS IS THAT ENERGY IS NEVER LOST. ACTUALLY, THE POSSIBILITY THAT OUR UNIVERSE CREATES MANY NEW UNIVERSES SUGGESTS THAT NEW ENERGY IS BEING ADDED.
THROUGH US, ACCORDING TO COSMOLOGIST BRIAN SWIMM, THE UNIVERSE BECOMES AWARE OF ITSELF. HARD TO BE GLOOMY IF WE REMEMBER THIS MOST EXCITING ROLE. GARY
Hi,
It seems to me like arguments here are a bit speculative as to the nature of the universe and its lifespan. But it does appear that the thoughts veer towards the idea that energy created is never lost, and that would argue for an unending cosmos. But the idea of “conscious” being snobby seems oversensitive. Anyone can become conscious, or aware, or tuned -in or in the flow, it’s a matter of desire and application. It is by this a very democratic notion in it’s availability and usefulness. If you choose to take the time to listen, and observe, the world opens up to us. There’s nothing finer than to realize you have the choice to be of and in the moment, and that your life can change as a result. Potential, yes, there’s gobs of it out there if you reach out and make the effort to embrace the changes that realizing our potential requires.
Eric N.
Rob,
Your information about the universe needs some updating.
We do know that the universe is expanding at an astounding rate. Cosmologists have no idea what will happen eventually. You mention one of the less convincing theories.
More compelling now are theories that suggest a far-from sterile and dead scenario. As I mention in my post, we know that new stars are being created everywhere in a fecund universe. It’s a dynamic picture of infinity, a frequently used word in cosmology these days. See David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity….
Theorists now discuss the potential created in black holes, the possibility that they actually create new universes. This universe seems to have an unlimited potential to create multiverses into infinity.
The potential of the universe is not a “very real form of energy,” as you claim. It it were energy, it would be a manifested element of the universe—like gravity or dark energy. But potential is—by definition—something yet unmanifested, as cosmologists suggest, an idea form.
You’re offended by my use of the word consciousness and feel that my definition of the word is “perverted,” speaking on high to the “rest of us mere plebes.”
Since my use of the word is pretty much in the current usage in science, philosophy, and psychology, your comment sent me back to my post to see what you might find offensive.
After I mentioned the obvious—that much of our species is only modestly awake (do I have to spell out that we are still a rapacious, violent and destructive species?)—here’s what I said:
“But there is a significant portion of humans whose consciousness allows them to live in possibility. They are able to see their own potential even when they face immense challenges. They are able to see the potential in others even when those others don’t see it in themselves. They are able to see the potential of the human species, even as we flirt with global disaster.
The most conscious people on earth are in a constant state of intentional investment in their own potential and the potential of the human species.
Their investments in potential are love in action.”
I submitted this post to A Daring Adventure because I find a healthy, awake examination of the human condition here, a substantial gathering of people who live in possibility. ready to challenge their existing belief systems.
Coaches have to be pretty conscious people. If they are not, they’re going to screw people up or merely cheat them by charging for bad explanations. Tim is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.
This is a conscious place, in my view.
“Conscious” – I object to the use of this term, which is markedly different from its usual meaning.
I find the word to be mildly offensive, as if those claiming this perverted definition of “consciousness” have stumbled onto a way of being far superior to the lives of the rest of us mere plebs.
I regularly seek to learn from people with knowledge and wisdom which appears roughly compatible with my existing belief system. As far as I’m concerned, if someone is unconscious then I’m unlikely to learn anything from them, other then how loudly they can snore.
Glad to see your feeling better mate!! :)
“Potential isn’t energy or any form of matter.”
In Mathematics and Physics, potential energy (P.E.) is a very real form of energy, used in a variety of practical applications.
Pedant mode reactivated.
“But spiral galaxies are home to stars that give birth to new stars in an incredible, never-ending creative act of achieving potential. ”
Never-ending? My understanding of cosmology is that eventually the entire Universe will reach an equal state entropy and will effectively be sterile and dead.
Pedant mode over.