The Possibility in Change

October 12, 2025

Reflect

Change rarely asks for permission. It interrupts, rearranges, and sometimes unravels what once felt steady. It can start quietly through a realization, a conversation, or a decision you did not expect to make. Other times, it comes as a limitation: maybe it’s a health diagnosis, a career shift, or a closed door that forces you to see differently.

This is exactly what happened to Phil Hansen.

After years of training to be a pointillist, Phil developed a hand tremor that made it impossible to draw straight lines or control his pen. Doctors told him the nerve damage was permanent. For an artist whose identity was built on precision, the diagnosis felt like an ending.

For a while, it was. He stopped creating.

But then something shifted. Instead of fighting the shake, he decided to embrace it. He began using his trembling lines as part of the art itself. Soon, his creativity expanded in unexpected directions like painting with karate chops, drawing portraits out of coffee cups, and crafting installations from matchsticks and food.

Phil’s limitation didn’t end his creativity. It expanded it. What once looked like a barrier became a doorway and through it, he discovered a new kind of freedom.

Change often works that way. It challenges our sense of control, yet in doing so, it reveals parts of us that might never have emerged otherwise. Possibility begins when we stop resisting the shake and start exploring what it can teach us.

Implement

When you are in the middle of change, resist the urge to define it too quickly.
Instead, pause and ask yourself:
• What might this season be making space for?
• Where could something new be taking root, even if I cannot see it yet?

If it helps, write one grounding reminder you can return to this week: “I may not know what is next, but I am open to the possibility it carries.”

You do not have to see the full path. Just take the next step with openness and trust.

Strengthen

Watch: Phil Hansen: Embrace the Shake (10-min TED Talk)

In this short and powerful talk, Phil shows how constraint can unlock creativity. His story is a reminder that change does not always take something away, as it can give us a new way to create, lead, and see ourselves.

If you do not have time to watch, take this with you:
Hansen learned that when we stop trying to work around our limits and start creating within them, innovation follows. You can begin right where you are with what you already have.

Reflect for a few minutes:

Where in my life or work could a current challenge actually be an opening for creativity or growth?

If it helps, make a simple two-column list:
What feels limiting right now | What it might be teaching me

Noticing what can grow within your limits turns frustration into possibility.

Elevate

Change is not the end of what was. It is the beginning of who you are becoming.

When you meet uncertainty with openness, something new starts to take root.
Trust that what feels uncertain today may one day reveal your greatest clarity.

Momentum Insight

Experiment with one “what if” this week. Take something that feels limited (for example time, resources, or clarity) and flip it into possibility.

Then ask AI: 

“Acting as an executive coach and strategist, show me new ways that [insert your limitation] could spark creativity, progress, or create opportunities.”

Possibility expands when we treat every limit as an invitation to create.

Next week: Dreams have no expiration date. Sometimes the dream is waiting for the version of you who is ready to live it.

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