The Possibility Factor: Is the issue your choice? Or your choices?
Sometimes the best choice isn’t already on the palette—it’s what you mix into being.
This Week’s Possibility Note
The Possibility Factor: Is the issue your choice? Or your choices?
Last week, here at The Possibility Factor, we looked at the role of FACTOR as part of what we consider when looking at what’s possible. The letter C represented CHOICE.
Possibility is unlocked through decision. The moment you choose to act, a new reality begins. But this week, I want to go deeper. Because it’s not just about the decision, it’s about how we reach it.
We’re often told that life is shaped by our choices. But that’s only part of the truth.
What actually shapes our lives are the choices we believe we have. And too often, we limit those without even realizing it.
We choose between A and B, never imagining that C is possible or even that we could create D ourselves. We make decisions inside frameworks someone else built without realizing the structure itself is the constraint.
What if the problem isn’t the decision itself—but the assumption that the options in front of you are all you get?
I’ve always believed that poor decisions are most often the result of starting with poor choices. Not bad judgment. Just a narrow menu.
That’s why The Possibility Factor here and also in Cooper North’s story is centered not on choosing better, but on seeing differently.
Because sometimes, the most powerful option isn’t on the palette yet.
Sometimes the breakthrough comes after you’ve ruled out every option and are willing to sit in the space of not knowing.
Urgency pressures us to decide. Possibility invites us to imagine.
You’re not always responsible for the options you’re given. But you are responsible for questioning them.
Remember, some choices are clear. Others invite you to redefine what’s possible. And they all define you.
That shift—from choosing within to creating beyond—is where the Possibility Factor begins to work its quiet magic.
This Week’s Book Update:
‘The Possibility Factor in Action
If you’re just joining us this week, this publication is also about the book I’m currently writing, also titled The Possibility Factor.
When faced with the choice to sell his struggling consultancy or risk losing everything, Cooper North meets an unlikely guide who offers not answers, but a new way of seeing. Through the pages of a well-worn journal, Cooper discovers that true leadership isn’t about holding on or letting go. It’s about creating new possibilities where none seemed to exist.
This week, I’ve been working on several scenes where our main character is recognizing that his task is less about deciding whether or not to sell his company and more about what else is possible. What expands the dream instead of bringing it to a close for him?
One of the journal’s lessons speaks directly to this moment in Cooper’s story and to the heart of how we find our best options.
“When you’ve ruled out every option, wait one more beat. Possibility shows up for the patient. The answer that changes everything usually arrives after you’ve stopped demanding one.” ~Kathi Laughman, The Possibility Factor
There is another lesson that emphasizes the importance of getting the choices right so that you can make the right one.
The right decision leaves a legacy. This moment will echo. Choose what you want it to say. ~Kathi Laughman, The Possibility Factor
It’s a story about what happens when we stop thinking in terms of either/or decisions and start looking for the possibilities that weren’t obvious at first, both in business and in life.
As you read through the story (and the lessons), it becomes clear that it is always about what’s next. Everything makes something else possible.
This Week’s Possibility Prompts: Choose with clarity. Choose with courage. And always leave room for something new.
"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." — Viktor E. Frankl
What space are you rushing past? Could a new possibility emerge if you lingered in the pause before the decision?
"Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth."
— Rumi
Are you choosing from someone else’s script? What would it look like to step outside the usual choices and create your own?
That’s it for this week! Thank you for being a part of this community.
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Here’s to all the possibilities, waiting for us to notice and name them.
When will Cooper North's story be available to purchase and read?!