Do you ever get the feeling that there is something that is trying to happen, but you just can’t put your finger on it? It’s like something is bubbling away beneath the surface of your conscious mind, a potential that if you could just get clear on what it is, then things would fall into place.

It’s not your imagination; you are possibly picking up what is called the “generative potential.” In simple terms, the generative potential suggests that in any given situation, underneath the surface level hubbub, something is trying to happen, a field of possibility bubbling away waiting to be connected to and actualized through intent and action. The generative potential is emergent—it is in the process of coming into being—and is therefore also known as the emerging potential. This is a very real phenomenon that is part of your capacity to grow in understanding of your greater creative potential.

Mankind is gifted with an extrasensory capacity which allows us to sense into the situations unfolding within and around us, and to catch a glimpse of what is trying to happen beneath the surface level drama and hullabaloo. Most people are unaware that they have this sensory capacity, and it goes untapped. Others who get the tingly sense that deep down something is trying to happen may give it a moment of thought, but if more information does not readily come forth, they may dismiss it as a quirky experience. However, for those who stay with it and explore it, those moments can prove to be extraordinarily revealing of an unseen potential.

There are two interrelated aspects to the emergent potential: What is trying to happen in and through you within any given moment, and what is trying to happen within the context, the entire system of which you are connected. Your internal state and the external context are merging into a unified field, and when you attune to this field, you will begin to perceive unseen possibilities and unrealized potentials for both yourself and the situation.

What is “trying to happen” is a generative potential born of the coinciding of a range of factors and systems, all coming together in a moment of singularity. What is “trying to emerge” is not solely of you or of any one person, it is born of the interconnected system, the unified field. This system, or field, has its own volition—it is self organizing—and when we attune to what is trying to happen and nurture it forth, we foster a natural, organic process of change that is inherently positive because it reflects what the unified field is evolving toward.

This may sound complex, so let’s look at it in the coaching context.

Deep Coaching Tip

Most coaching focuses on helping clients explore and identify what they think ought to happen or would like to have happen within any given situation. With the right questions the coach invites the client into a larger field of perception in which they begin to see new opportunities, solutions, and effective ways forward. However this is not the same as attuning to the emergence of what wants to happen, because it often begins and ends with one’s self: what my will is for this.

For your clients to attune to the emerging potential they must first relinquish their personal will (what I desire to see happen) in favor of open will (what I am willing to be shown). With their will now open, they are ready to sense into the unified field with the fullness of their consciousness.

Our role as coaches is to create a space in which our clients can connect from the whole within themselves to the whole of the context in which they are operating (to sense into field where all is one), to invite them to listen for the potential that is trying to express through them, and to then actively create what they now know needs to happen.

This is powerful stuff.

Attunement to the whole is not about “thinking through,” but “sensing into”. The mind is engaged in an altogether different way. Rather than trying to figure out a solution or a way forward, we attune to the generative potential that is trying to unfold naturally and organically, and allow it to be shown to us.

It is a form of deep listening. Instead of focusing on the details of the situation or assessing options available, you are focusing on connecting to the unified field. When the whole of the system and the whole of the perceiver are invited into conscious awareness, new windows of possibility emerge. The perceiver gains a perspective of what the whole itself is trying to do as a self-organizing system, and begins to see his or her role in the creative unfolding.

As a coach, you have a vital role to play as the one who creates the space in which this becomes possible.

You invite your clients to breathe and become present—this is a time to just be—and to let go of any preconceived ideas around what needs to happen. Invite them to connect to that place within themselves where mind, heart, and will are wide open, where there is a natural capacity to perceive higher truths. Nothing needs to be asked here, and little needs to be said beyond the invitation to attune to what is trying to happen. Then go into that same place within yourself, and simply hold the space for the understanding to arise.

This capacity to attune to the emerging potential is deeply transformative, as it moves far beyond the limits of personal perception into a field of potential that assumes the whole. Then, when the knowing of what wants to happen arises, you can begin to explore taking action. It is now time to do what needs to happen, for each of us to play our part in creating the future that is emerging in the present, and desires to express itself through us; a conscious, co-creative partnership with life itself.