ARE YOU A POTENTIALIST?
Potentialist (noun) : a person who turns possibility into motion by helping others see what’s worth moving toward
A Potentialist works in spaces where the future is forming, not fixed. They help people recognize potential and choose to engage, not by pushing, but by creating the moment where someone says, “Oh, tell me more.”
Protecting Emergence
These practices keep possibilities open long enough to become something new.
They stop us from collapsing what could be into what’s already been.
You don’t reduce new ideas to familiar categories. Instead, you let them remain strange, incomplete, or unclear longer than is comfortable. This means you don’t kill potential just because you don’t yet recognize it.
The trap: Needing to “get it” too quickly
The discipline: Let the idea exist without immediate judgment
The result: Possibility stays alive long enough to evolve
Resist Binarization
You don’t collapse uncertain futures into the most recognizable outcome. You hold multiple outcomes open, even if others want resolution. This means you don’t force direction before potential has a chance to emerge.
The trap: Deciding what it is too early
The discipline: Sit in ambiguity without choosing a path too soon
The result: You keep momentum alive while others get stuck in certainty
Operate Across Futures
Enabling Momentum
These practices help potential move from invisible to shared, from emerging to active.
They make sure what could be doesn’t just stay possible; it starts to happen.
You don’t wait for certainty or perfection. You shape meaning through real-world action, not theoretical planning. This means that relevance emerges through motion, not assumptions.
The trap: Waiting until it’s “ready”
The discipline: Move before you’re sure and learn as you go
The result: Potential gets tested, shaped, and refined into something useful
You don’t push ideas to get agreement. You frame them in ways others want to explore, contribute to, and carry forward. This means engagement becomes choice, not compliance.
The trap: Pitching or pleading
The discipline: Trust the pull and design for curiosity
The result: Momentum builds because others want to take it further
Design for Invitation
Experiment to Define
You don’t shrink or share your ambition to make room for others. You grow it while building futures where theirs can grow too. This means your success expands not because you give something up but because you choose to design for more.
The trap: Believing you have to compete or compromise
The discipline: Hold your ambition fully and make space for others to do the same
The result: You build momentum that scales ambition instead of trading it