The Potential Self. Another huge possibility of neglect (as to who you really are, or could be) is this: You can become so much a creature of familiar habit that you don’t even think you have to think about how to approach a situation that enters your life. You just shift into a usual familiar gear and be whoever you “usually are” to deal with “that”. But there is a new “You” that might become possible if you could just loosen up enough to notice it. The question is, what is your potential? What could you become?
Even me: After 83 years, what could I still become? How might you and I be stuck now in our own “works most of the time” ideological practice? I think each of us, all our lives, has potential selves within – new understanding, possible skill, even transforming insight possibilities – that could transform standards of success and our accomplishments in nearly all aspects of our lives. The key is to have an open mind, to seek and to wonder at the right times when opportunity beckons. Even noticing when opportunity beckons…. But that doesn’t necessarily happen automatically; not at work, not in the family, not in retirement, not necessarily anywhere. It takes a shift in basic belief and in awareness. Otherwise you risk remaining stuck in the lie.
Larger System Applications. So far I’ve been talking about the lie that you or I can as individuals be “stuck” in. But take the notion up to other larger system levels and the same case applies. The Team, the Department, the Organization, the State, the Nation…. Changing from “Stuck” into a larger, better Self -Together presents another challenge.
It’s easier to change how you look at things if everyone around you is encouraging it. And harder if they aren’t. As an individual you can at least change what you see and what you try to do, and how you attempt to influence your relevant world, even if everything around you seems to want to cook on as it always has. In an organization, though, unless you can influence the system, and the different kinds of power operating within it, to cooperate together.., organizational change can become difficult. The larger the Envelope you wish to change, the more difficult it can be, but the principles remain the same.
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