“A Sense of Potential”
“A Sense of Potential”
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About a year ago I was chatting on the phone with someone close to me, a family member in fact. We were talking shop about solopreneurship, consulting, personal branding, etc. and finding mutual resonance (or commiseration maybe) in the fact that we find it a little hard to pin down at times.
Of my own process I posited “Well, what about…’A Sense of Potential’?”
…in response to which she thought for a bit and quickly replied “Yes! That is THE brand.”
And I appreciated it, but decided to sit with it, as I do with most things.
A year later though…maybe she’s right.
How right? Perhaps profoundly.
Let’s explore that.
We need to start with some metaphysics. Because, hey, it’s me! Also, metaphysics governs literally every point in spacetime, being metaphysics and all.
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Specifically we’re going to spend some time with Aristotle (highly paraphrased through my ~10th-hand understanding!), that Macedonian expatriate who assumed the Athenian master mantle from Plato, if not the actual Academy. The label “metaphysics” comes from his encyclopedia - it’s the volume that comes right after the “physics”. Nothing more than that, but the name stuck and began to resonate at very high frequency, perhaps the highest frequency of all.
Metaphysics asks the question (among others) “What are the conditions for something to exist?”
Aristotle looked at entities and saw them changing. People, animals, geological formations. They don’t stay the same, so change must be part of Being.
You’re changing, I’m changing, we’re all changing.
To describe this change more precisely he made use of a couple terms that may not be original to him, but are now closely associated with him:
👉 (Actual | ity)
👉 (Potential | ity)
Actual is what now is, and potential is what could be. It relates to how substance finds form as it proceeds through time.
So, an actual baby is potentially an adult, and typically becomes one, given the right conditions.
An actual acorn is potentially an oak true, and typically becomes one, given the right conditions.
These processes happen automatically in most cases, due to the mechanics of biochemistry.
But before they do we have a mere sense of it, paired with a general sensibility, called “induction”, that refers to the way patterns are often reliable in life and can be generalized into the future by a kind of faith. Babies grow into adults, acorns into oaks. The sun will rise and set again tomorrow. 2 + 2 will be 4 tomorrow, just as it is today.
But we still proceed from the actuality of the present into the potentiality of the future, again and again and again, and cannot, in fact, stop this process.
Following so far?
(Actual | ity) & (Potential | ity).
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Okay, let’s add another component. Aristotle called this “telos”, and the associated study has come to be known as “teleology”. This refers to an entity’s end, or what we might term a “purpose”. But it’s important to note that this is a translation across languages.
An acorn’s telos is an oak.
A baby’s telos is an adult.
That’s a physical telos.
But, is there a metaphysical kind of telos too, that is, a telos that transcends physicality (biology, chemistry, etc.)?
Yes, unequivocally, and I think we all know it.
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Humans come together in all sorts of different ways. Families, friendships, organizations, institutions.
Each one becomes an entity.
And each entity has a telos.
Social entities do not cohere without a telos. In fact, the telos MUST precede the social entity. How could it be otherwise?
The telos of a family is love, intimacy, growth, shelter from storm.
The telos of friendship is companionship, enjoyment, support.
The telos of a business is service and profit.
The telos of a school is pedagogy, personal development, transmission of social norms.
All entities are telic. They cohere for a purpose.
This is true of the cells in your body, which cohere to form and drive you.
It’s true of the organizations in your society, which cohere to form civilization.
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And all entities have much in common - all have a boundary that separates what is within from what is without. And within is an environment. And without is the rest of existence, which the entity distinguishes itself, with which it interfaces, and, in the process of doing all this, pursues its end(s).
So, the cells in your body have boundaries, an internal environment, and a way of interfacing with other cells. When the internal environment is healthy the organism is healthy.
The organizations in your society have boundaries, an internal environment, and a way of interfacing with other organizations. When the internal environment is healthy, the society is healthy.
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Now, here’s the thing.
(Potential | ity) is ALWAYS giving way to (Actual | ity), and this is due to the flow of time. All entities are busy becoming what they are being, and busy being what they are becoming.
So, (potential | ity) is inevitable, just like (actual | ity).
But, there’s an ache.
An ache to become more than what you are, to step into the future with greater health, vibrance, prosperity, vision, presence, impact, influence, etc.
And when we tap into that, our actuality changes, or perhaps our projected actuality, shaped by a discernment of new potentiality. The magic is in the discernment of potentiality itself that was prior hidden or undetected - potential paths, potential magnitude, potential strengths, potential integration, potential vibrance, potential health, etc. etc. etc…
And THIS is what is meant by a “sense of potential”. It’s what my family member recognized. A way of seeing a bigger actuality that could manifest in the future by spending more time dwelling in the field of potentiality…
…and thus yielding a healthier internal environment (aka “culture”) that supports a healthier interface with fellow entities (aka “communication”).
So, are you seeing it? Feeling it? Sensing it?
Because vision is simply the future we hallucinate to tap into our sense of (potential | ity).
And, for the most part, people hallucinate a (potential) future that is very similar to what (actual) - ly is. This is what is known as “preserving the status quo”. It is, on the whole, the most common outcome of all {(potential | ity) ➡️ (actual | ity)} transitions.
But I don’t play there. I hallucinate a much different (potential) future, and that makes all the difference.
And people know it.
So, how about you?
What kind of future are you hallucinating?
Bigger? More vibrant? Healthier? More integrated? More alive? More prosperous? More full of connection?
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I don’t just see potential. I help people name theirs, and then actualize it.
If you feel an ache in your current form, maybe that’s your potential calling.
Let’s dwell in that field together:
https://aaronjmarx.com/a-sense-of-potential
Not ready to take the leap into working with me? Here’s the next best thing…
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