Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More




Enrolling Others In Your Possibility Isn't A Chore

Starbucks Coffee, Napa, California, USA

July 17, 2008



This essay, Enrolling Others In Your Possibility Isn't A Chore, is the second in a group of twelve on Enrollment: It is also the second in an open group on Possibility: I am indebted to Bruce Munton who inspired this conversation.



Music by The Beatles - Photography by Michael Cooper Music by The Beatles - Photography by Michael Cooper
The Beatles Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Enrolling others in your possibility isn't a chore. Do you have to  enroll others in your possibility?

Think of it like this:

If The Beatles enrolled only their Liverpool Cavern Club fans in the possibility of their music, they'd have become one kind of band. They would have been OK, just fine that way. Did they have to enroll the whole world  in the possibility of their music? No, they didn't have to. No one said they had to. No one made them do it.

But they did enroll the whole world in the possibility of their music, and they had the time of their lives  doing it. That's why today they're the greatest rock 'n roll band that ever was (and, possibly, ever will be). That, even though none of The Beatles participated in Werner's work although Yoko Ono did. She realized the value of it, saying "Werner's got a good gig.". Calmly persistent in the face of his initial resistance to the idea, Yoko enrolled John in participating. His registration, however, was cut short by his untimely demise.

Even if they didn't yet have access to the language tools Werner later developed constituted in his Magnum Opus of transformation, The Beatles knew if it's a possibility, if it's in authentic  possibility, it's inspiring. "Inspiring" is a word which simply must  be included in any worthwhile dictionary definition of possibility. A possibility is inspiring. The newness  of it, the "Wow!"  of seeing it for the first time, the very ... well ... possibility  of it (if you'll excuse my self referential speaking) calls forth enthusiasm. Its expression is hardly constrained. Enthusiasm born from it makes it hard to constrain. No agreement is required for it to engender enthusiasm. No approval is required to validate its enthusiasm. The enthusiasm  component is there from the get go. From then on, it's a matter of sharing it. But that's easy. It's not a chore. Genuine enthusiasm requires very little heat from the stove for it to boil over - if  it's born from an authentic possibility to begin with.

If you're experiencing enrolling others in your possibility as a chore, it's likely you haven't yet completely distinguished your possibility. If your possibility is authentic, if it's clear, if it's genuine, then it's inspiring to you. When it's inspiring to you, then it's inspiring to others. No effort is required for it to be enrolling. Inspiration grounded in possibility is naturally contagious: everyone gets it, everyone wants it. It literally enrolls others by itself.



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