While teaching over the last few days in LA we explored what it takes to step into new possibilities and new potential in our work and lives.

I often hear a desire from people to try something new in their work. Perhaps they want to change careers completely, they want to offer new services in their business, or they would like to take a new role in their organization. Overall, they express a desire to ‘step out’ in new ways; they feel like they have more they could give and do. Yet, they struggle to make that step.

That leap from where they are to where they would like to be seems hard for variety of reasons. It can look like more clarity, more confidence, more courage or more resources are needed.

What if none of that is required? What if accessing new possibilities, new potential or a fresh experience of ourselves comes from letting go, not adding on?

What if it requires going beyond the familiar, beyond what we know and beyond all our thoughts and ideas about who we are and what we like and don’t like?

This was the journey for me. It wasn’t until I got less attached to what I thought I knew about myself and even what I wanted, that new insights and new experiences started to emerge.

Over the last eight years, if I had to describe my evolution and what continues to help me open up to new experiences of myself and others, it would be the willingness to let go of all the ideas I have about myself and my preferences.

To lean more into what I don’t know than what I think it true about me. To stay curious and open rather than ruling things out.

Years ago, when starting my business, I had a conversation with my coach at the time, Michael Neill, that literally shifted my orientation in life and business. What began then as a hint of new possibilities continues to deepen for me and to be a compass for my life and business.

Michael said to me, “Barb you can create your business from what you know, what you’ve learned in your career, your knowledge, your formulas for success and most likely you’ll create a solid business. However, what you potentially rob yourself of, is an opportunity to have a whole new experience of yourself in the world.”

That sentence went right to my heart. It spoke to me very deeply. I was in – immediately. It was a clear, “Yes. I want that” There was something about stepping into “a new experience of myself” that resonated and inspired me.

We then went on to have a really powerful conversation about what it takes to do that.

Imagine you can draw from the “well of memory” or the “well of the unknown” in your work, your relationships or your life.

Said another way, we can draw from our memory, our experiences, our past or our preferences to build a future or we can draw from the field of infinite possibilities. The field of the unknown.

Neither is better than the other. One is not right and the other wrong. However, I realized that I was oriented and only looking from the well of memory.

New & fresh do not live in what we know. They live in the unknown.

In a practical way, this meant that my strategies, my formulas, my history would stop taking the lead on where to go and what to do. I had to learn to listen and look in another way. To go beyond all of my ideas and my history and see what else was alive and wanting to emerge.

I had to get an “ear for” and a “feel for” what was alive in me, inspired or nudging me versus what I thought should happen. This also meant being willing to take a step without all the information. To follow a nudge, to engage, and then keep open and listening.

Doing this has more often than not, led to new depths of inspiration, connection and joy in my life. I’ve learned I do okay in the unknown. I’ve learned that I can handle it when things don’t work out. I can get over disappointment. And while insecurity isn’t fun, it doesn’t have to stop me in my tracks either.

I’ve had the pleasure of watching clients find a whole new sense of freedom when their world opens up. Not because they acquired new skills, new tools or formulas but because they got less attached to their ideas. By being less rigid about how they wanted things go, look and be.

When we are willing to let go of wants, preferences and ideas, we are able to naturally tap into fresh and new. From this place we are often surprised in really wonderful ways and as a result experience more joy, love and fulfillment.

As one participant said this last weekend, “I never realized that even my good ideas about what I can do and what I like are actually keeping me limited. But I can now see I stopped looking and learning and exploring. I am so excited to discover what else is there.”

What if there is more on offer for you too but it requires a loosening up or letting go of your preconceived ideas about you, your likes, dislikes & talents?

To experience ourselves, each other and our lives with fresh eyes we must go beyond what we know, get curious and explore the field of infinite possibilities.