Landmark Forum Leader Insights

Possibility—more like dancing than stepping

By Manal Maurice

Most of us can ride a bicycle, but no one actually knows how it is done. Not even engineers or bicycle manufacturers know the “formula” for balancing—there’s no “right” method of counteracting the tendency to fall by turning the handlebars. Tutorials, diagrams, explanations don’t do the trick. We have to discover balance, distinguish balance from a largely undifferentiated background and when we do, it establishes a new realm of possibility.

Because we listen a lot of the time for formulas, we often think of possibility like there is a formula. From formulas, we learn what works; how best to navigate; what knowledge to apply, when, where, and how. A lot gets accomplished by formula—but not possibility. Possibility does not play out in a clear-cut way (black/white, correct/incorrect, true/false). When we create a realm of possibility, it will exist in time and place. When it manifests, it will manifest in time and place, and will move in the direction of some formula—so it is worth paying attention to this business about formula. But we can disempower ourselves if we get “stuck” there.

When a new realm of possibility gets created (along with the accompanying freedom to be and act within that realm) it has a vastly different impact on the quality of our lives than those things that live as a formula. In this new space we’re dealing with the same things, but they occur in a new way because we’re dealing with them in a new paradigm. Everything that was powerful in the formula is still there, still available—but it looks like dancing instead of stepping.

Manal Maurice
Landmark Forum leader
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