"Pick a job" Bobbie Says,
"And then become the person that does it."
Don smirks, tasting the words over the old fashioned in his hands.
"That's true," he says.
- Mad Men
A compelling idea.
Coming from characters who've forced themselves into roles and altered their identities to become anyone other than who they really are.
What about,
Pick who you are, and then allow the job to become you.
Maybe this is less ... enticing.
Less simple.
Less alluring.
There's power in the former. Pick a job, and then become the person that does it. There's certainty1 in that idea. The job tells you who you should you be. No discernment needed. All you have to do is fit yourself to the job.
Aside from the certainty inherent in having an external force dictate who you should be and what you should do ...
There's another reason we tend to stick to that dynamic ...
"nammana nammana" - he wiggles in his chair, shimmying his shoulders back and forth
"That's right! Nom nom nom" I do a little joyous wiggle for delicious food
His face breaks open into an enormous grin.
"EEEEEEE!!" - he wiggles more excitedly
"Mooooore??" He looks hopeful, as he taps his fingers together
I reach for the bowl and give him another spoonful.
Now he does a quick toddler run across the living room, and with some effort, pulls himself up on the couch.
He sits back. Looks to either side of himself.
Then he looks at me.
He smiles. I can't help but smile back.
"ISSCHA ISSCHA!" He taps the cushion next to him. Eyebrows slightly raised in hopeful insistence. It means, come sit here.
It's time for books.
"ISSCHA ISSCHA!!" He taps more fervently.
I'm not moving fast enough.
I come over and sit down.
He wiggles in excitement.
"eggAH! eggAH!" We're going to read Edgar and the Treehouse of Usher.
He taps the book. Does a little wiggle. And settles his hands in his lap, waiting patiently.
When we are born, and for so many of our early years, "what" defines things. What to do. How to act. How to fit ourselves to living in life.
In the beginning our function is to survive and grow, so copying forms that work in order to do that is the easiest way.
Our children mirror us aggressively and in adorable ways.
When we were children, that's all we knew. Mirroring. Acting. Trying out behaviors. Trying out gestures. Trying out postures. How do we be a person? We copy the ones we see.
And when we're comfortable. When we're safe. When we're secure...
The uniqueness in us can come out. It can try something new we haven't seen. It can explore. It can question.
But fitting to a form is what we are aggressively pressured with throughout our lives.
As children grow and start entering society, the world around continues to press form. The more you grow, the more you get into society and societal structures - school systems, work systems, etc. They all press you into form because all of these systems are designed to support the lowest common denominator.
Which you are not.
You are unique.
Your function is unique.
No school system by default can serve your unique function. No work system by default can serve your unique function. Only you can - and in those societal systems you are forced to fit your function into an externally defined form.
So as you go through the period of growing from sprout to tree, when you are in those years of being forced into a form, your function is starting to emerge. You are starting to find interests, desires, motivations. You are starting to see within you the thing that wants to grow and emerge and become great or small, and do wonderful or simple things. But because we live in a society and not a culture which recognizes this, there's nothing that will naturally guide you into your Known Potential and pull out your Unknown and Full Potential.
By the time you become an adult, all you've known is form, and fitting yourself to forms. What you should do. Who you should be.
Pick a job and become the person who does that job.
It's the path of least resistance toward "success" in the world around us.
But,
It's not living a life of Full Potential.
What is Full Potential and Why do we Care?
The concept of Full Potential comes to us from our Cornerman Dr. Jeff Spencer, and The Three Potentials2.
In short,
There are 3 levels of Potential within us.
There's Known Potential. Unknown Potential. and Full Potential.
Known Potential is something we are capable of unlocking in ourselves. It something we unlock by doing things. Ideally by doing a thing we are good at which we enjoy a lot. We often combine The Three Potentials with Frequency, Intensity, and Purpose, because they align well.
You open up your Known Potential through frequency. As a writer, for me, that's writing. That can be writing in general, but I think it's important to think about this through the lens of intent and presence.
It's not enough to just write words, but to write with presence and intent towards a specific outcome.
Writing ads. Writing articles. Writing books. Whatever it is, to be intentful and present in the full spectrum of the thing I am doing.
That is Know Potential.
Unknown Potential is something which emerges through exposure, proximity, and access to the right people. People who are able to pull out that unknown potential from the work you are doing with your Known Potential. There's no direct equation. You've got to find the right people, the people who bring out something in what you are doing which you haven't ever seen before, which you can't see without having been exposed to those people.
This is Intensity. It's the uniqueness that you put on your work. Or perhaps, the unique identity that starts to emerge from the work you are doing.
It's when you can look at someone's work and know that it's theirs without seeing their name on it. Because it carries that unique stamp.
Full Potential is what happens when you have revealed your Known Potential, and have experienced the emergence of your Unknown Potential through exposure proximity and access. Now your Full Potential starts to emerge.
This is Purpose.
Full Potential is your life's Purpose, and it only happens as an emergent property of the combined elements of Known and Unknown potential.
Why Do We Care about Full Potential?
This is a personal choice for you.
You certainly don't have to care about your Full Potential.
We care about Full Potential because it's how we live our greatest best happiest life. We only get one life. We only get one walk through it. We only get one chance at many decisions in life. One playthrough.
One chance to unfold your gifts to the greatest possible joy for yourself, your loved ones, and others.
So why wouldn't you want to live it all to your fullest potential?
Potential and Form
Knowing this, we can observe an interesting dynamic.
If part of figuring out the whole picture of your life is uncovering your Full Potential ...
Then that necessarily means you have to move through action to reveal your Known Potential, through engaging the field, and to do so in a way that leaves you receptive so that when the opportunities come along for you to unlock your Unknown Potential you can take them, because the only way to experience the emergence of your Full Potential is through the combination of known and unknown.
The only way is to be receptive to what you can't see right now.
This becomes very hard to do if you're hyper-focused on what it is you are doing.
Because an adherence to Form is inherently unreceptive.
If I think I have to keep being "a copywriter" in order to get what I want, that's going to shut down my awareness and receptivity for many possible things that don't quite fit the mold of what "being a copywriter" means (to me).
For me, I see copywriting as a tool - tools that execute tactics, which serve a strategy, which implement principle and philosophy.
I personally can recognize the aspects of my potential which are based in philosophy and principle and leave myself open to receptivity in the strategy that I might use to enact those philosophies and principles (and thus unfold my known potential).
I'd argue that known, unknown, and full potential do not revolve around tools. That is, no one's full potential lies in "copywriting" but rather their full potential is layers up and copywriting may very well be one of the best tools for ultimate executing on that.
So let's take the 'what' and try to unpack the 'why' behind it.
If I think my Full Potential lies in copywriting, that I'm revealing my Known Potential through copywriting work, and that I've found opportunities to unfold my Unknown Potential because of the copywriting work ...
Let's see if we can back out of the Form into the Function.
Form is what, Function is why.
In this case the Form is Copywriting, the What ... so what is the Why?
Tools, Tactics and Strategies are What you do.
Principles and Philosophies are Why you do it.
(For more on the Clarity Hierarchy - Philosophies, Principles, Strategies, Tactics, Tools - see Lukas Resheske3)
Copywriting is a tool which executes on a tactic.
What are some tactics? -- Sending an email, a sales letter, a social media post, a video, etc
Tactics are used to execute on strategies, and strategies are environments. What are some strategies? -- email, direct mail, social media, youtube
(I'm being narrow in the possibilities here on purpose to illustrate the point)
So copywriting is a tool of specific language and communication designed to connect dots for prospects and customers leading them towards an action the business wants them to take (such as purchasing a product or service).
"Copywriting is communication in context" - Lukas Resheske.
That tool is used in a wide variety of tactics which are executed in different strategies. Strategies in this context being environments in which communication with prospects and customers is done for the purpose of the business's goals.
Now let's step back and detach a little because we're talking about why I might focus on being a copywriter as a path of emerging Full Potential.
Because there's a difference between writing copy and being a copywriter and I personally define that line as the professional copywriter has the knowledge, skill, and experience to apply copywriting principles and techniques across a wide range of markets and businesses.
"Copywriter" is the job (which most people I think try to fit themselves to - pick the job, become the person who does the job).
This distinction is important because you can get very skilled at writing copy for your own business but have no idea how to do it for someone else's - when you are working on your own business you have the personal knowledge/experience of how to communicate with your customers, but in reference to copywriting you may lack the fundamental understanding of how that tool applies to many different tactics and strategies and how that tool can be variably used to support vastly different principles and philosophies.
In other words "being a copywriter" is walking a path of mastery in application of a tool across a wide range philosophy/principle/strategy/tactic spectrum.
Getting back to the Full Potential,
It's possible an individual unlocks Full Potential through being a copywriter because their potential actually lies in walking a path of mastery with a craft of communication.
Now we're getting higher up towards philosophy and principle.
It's not about the tool,
The tool just happens to be an excellent form of bringing about the potential in mastery of craft and communication.
(A note: this is not an absolute statement, but a hypothetical exploration of what it can look like to back out of “what” into the meaning of “why” with respect to potential and living a life of meaning and purpose)
If that individual acknowledges the higher reason and meaning for the work on what they are doing, they may be more open and receptive to opportunties which might fit their path better than the specific work they are doing now.
If its true that this individual has focused on being a copywriter because their potential lies on a path of mastery in craft of communication, we might discover in the philosophies and principles values centered around communicating with people, helping them uncover new understanding and growth. This person might have philosophies and principles around teaching and nurturing.
But they might also have philosophies and principles which are centered more around technical structure and systems. They might see growth as something to be strategically planned and executed upon in a meticulous process.
Point is,
None of the last couple paragraphs were specifically about copywriting. Because that is a "what you are doing."
When you back out to the why, and you find that understanding in yourself, receptivity will allow you to recognize other "what you could do" scenarios which allow you to fulfill on why you are doing it.
To take from the above example,
If I was the person in question and I discovered that why I was following the path of "Being a Copywriter" was because of my underlying philosophies and principles in communication to help people uncover new understanding and growth in themselves ...
I bet you can imagine a lot of different forms I might use to enact those philosophies and principles (I just might write articles for a Philosophical and Principally based publication, for example).
And pulling back to the Function I leave myself receptive to a wider array of forms that might serve my end purpose, and that means being more receptive to the connections that bring out my Unknown Potential and therefore much more likely to live a life where my Full Potential emerges.
This may be the highest level of Function over Form.
What's Keeping you from your Full Potential?
Let's start from the beginning.
Because the easiest thing to look at which can keep you from discovering your Full Potential might be a lack of work on unlocking your Known Potential.
That's Frequency. Are you doing the thing you are most inclined to do, which is the thing you most want to do, with enough frequency?
If you are then, it might be that you haven't found the right people to reveal your Unknown Potential.
That's Intensity. That is something which emerges from your Frequency when you gain exposure, proximity, and access to the right people. When you get to connect and work with people who give you the opportunities and open the doors for something new to come out of your work that couldn't happen otherwise.
If both of those things are happening it may only be a matter of time before your Full Potential is realized.
But if you are struggling with your Known Potential, or your Unknown Potential, or it feels like your Full Potential is still hidden from you ...
You may be stuck in a focus on form. On what you do, on what you are.
Rigid adherence to what you think it is you should be doing with your life. What it is you think you need to do to get what you want.
It's not easy to unpack.
Even if you are aware of the function you are ultimately trying to serve, every time you think it must be served with a particular form you risk closing yourself off to the potential.
It's why we Engage the Field4 and focus on our most immediate constraints5. Why we try to micro step, and use soft offense to test paths moving forward. We still must DO in the midst of all this. We still must use Forms to execute our ideas and move forward into the life that we want. But we also want to do this in a way that allows us to not be strictly tied to the thing we are doing, as much as possible.
Every time you strictly bind yourself to the form you think you need to be fitting to, you risk blinding yourself to possible situations which can reveal your unknown potential, and therefore won't be able to see the emergence of your Full Potential.
You can't see emergence of something new and unknown if your focus is narrowed on what it is you are doing. You certainly can't be receptive to the call6 if you're head is down trying to make yourself fit to it.
You've got to be able to step back and always recognize that in order to fulfill the function of your life (your Full Potential), you've got to be able to let go of the forms you think you need.
Always come back to the Function you are serving, and you'll be able to find your way on that path to a life of Full Potential.
Be Useful. Be Present. Love the Journey.
Joseph Robertson, CMO The Guardian Academy
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6wu: Anchoring to function nurtures full potential
Function > Form