A Possibility Model can Transform Your Life
As the name implies, a possibility model is a person whose life and existence show you what is possible. They are the people that we learn about and make us stop and say, “You can do that?” Sometimes it helps if the person is someone that we know, even if it’s because they grew up in our neighborhood, but possibility models can be anyone that you see living a life that you didn’t previously think was possible. They are the answer to the conundrum “You can’t be what you can’t see.”
So how does just knowing that a person exists potentially transform your life?
Possibility models show us that we have more options than we previously thought. When I was a teenager, I chose to major in science in college. But I didn’t know what people did with biological science majors if they weren’t interested in careers in healthcare. In my first semester of college I learned from the professors in my department, and from senior undergrads that there was a thing called research that people do as entire careers! It opened up more options for my career than I thought I’d had. Sometimes we need people to show us that there are more paths available to us than the ones we know.
Possibility models teach us that the world is both bigger and smaller than we think. We learn that there are people doing things that we didn’t know existed, and those people look like us, and come from where we come from, and started out in the same schools as we did. We learn that we can go further than we ever thought, not just to the local community college for an associate’s degree in accounting, but to a four-year accounting degree and opening a business of our own. Not just to dancing in our cramped bedroom, but to dancing as a professional in a theatre or on tour rwith our favorite artist. There is more for us, and it is all possible.
Possibility models give us bigger dreams. If we know that there are people out there who are doing things that we hadn’t thought were possible, it encourages us to think outside the box and imagine what else could potentially exist in this infinite universe. Our dreams grow larger and more elaborate once we know there’s more to life than we thought. We learn that there are women out there who are defining their own lives and traveling all over the world, and our imagination might tell us, not just what if I visited another continent?, but instead, what if I visit all of the continents?
It’s so important for us to know that more is possible. To know that those dreams we had as young children of going to the moon, or performing on a stage, or having a bug named after us could happen. Possibility models are so integral to showing up life beyond our current struggles and limitations, and I’m so grateful that those people exist for me to look to. Where have you been limiting yourself? Can you find someone to show you that something different is possible?
