The language of possibility

Think of the thing that you want eg “move to the country” (or however you want to express it)

Then say it in the following ways, and notice your internal experience each time (how does it feel when you say the words)

    I should move to the country…

    I ought to move to the country…

    I’ve got to move to the country…

    I have to move to the country…

    I must move to the country…

Did any one of these make getting it seem most likely?  Did any of the statements generate a different feeling?

Then, do the same exercise with some different expressions as follows:

    I’d like to move to the country…

    I might move to the country…

    I may move to the country…

    I could move to the country…

    I will move to the country…

How was the experience this time?  Did you find one way of saying it felt better?  Did one of them make you feel more motivated or optimistic? 

If so, you might just want to practice saying that one to yourself…

You could then try the same thing with some of the other things you want…more time…more fun…an exciting future to plan for…

It’s a really simple exercise and great for exploring your own motivation.  Do let me know how you get on with it – and where it takes you next…

It’s a reminder to seize the moment.  A signal that there’s nothing to wait for.  That it’s always time for new beginnings.  You just have to decide that the time is now.

With that in mind, here’s an amazing quote from Sir Francis Bacon to herald the start of June:

"Begin doing what you want to do now.  We are not living in eternity.  We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand, and melting like a snowflake…"

It made me think of times when we, too, might feel like there’s a gap site, a wasteland, inside.  As if something has burned away, leaving a space, an emptiness, waiting to be filled.  Times when we know we have got to the end of one chapter and know it is time to start another, however blank the pages might appear. 

And it helped me remember that those times are precisely when life is most full of possibility. Of change.  Of potential.

Modal operators of possibility set rules about what’s possible. 

A limiting pattern would be when we use them in the negative. 

"I can’t" or "I just couldn’t"

You might challenge these ‘rules’ by asking questions like:

"What would happen if you did?" or "what’s stopping you" or "just suppose you could…"

Model operators of necessity set rules about what’s necessary. 

A limiting pattern might be when they become burdensome, when someone is telling themselves they ‘have’ to do something even if they don’t want to or it’s not in their best interest.

"I must do" "I have to" "I should"

You might challenge these ‘rules’ by asking questions like:

"What would happen if you didn’t?" "Just suppose you didn’t have to, what would that be like?"

This allows people to identify a different set of possibilities outwith the confines of the ‘rule’.

Words can make us feel small, and weak, and lost.  Words can lift us up, make us feel hopeful, optimistic, inspired.

Words can be used to disguise what is going on.  And yet we can also find the words to tell the most powerful truths of all: our own.

Words, labels, language can make us feel that the world is fixed, absolute, unyielding.  But by playing with words and language we can start to soften those edges, create twirls and swoops and circles, whisper a sense of unknown possibility……can’t we?