How intentions shape reality and experience reshapes who we become.
We can understand reality through two connected domains: potential and actual. Potential is the subjective, relative domain of what we perceive, imagine, value, and intend. Actual is the objective domain of what happens, what exists, and what changes in the world. The relationship between them is not a one-way process. It is a continuous cycle in which potential shapes actuality, and actuality, in turn, reshapes potential.
The Potential including the Subjective and Relative
Potential begins with the subject: the individual as an agent capable of forming intentions and engaging with the world. Within this domain are six interconnected elements: identity, property, will, sovereignty, thoughts, and emotions.
Identity concerns who we understand ourselves to be. Property concerns what we regard as belonging to us or within our sphere. Will is our capacity to choose a direction. Sovereignty concerns self-governance and agency. Thoughts allow us to conceive possibilities and formulate plans, while emotions shape our motivations, priorities, and sense of significance.
This domain is subjective because it concerns our particular perspective, and relative because our understanding, values, and intentions exist in relation to our circumstances and experience. These elements shape what we perceive as possible and what we seek to bring about.
Yet potential alone does not make something happen. A thought may remain an idea, a desire may remain unfulfilled, and an intention may never become an action. For potential to influence the external world, it must find expression through intention.
Intention is the point at which subjective capacities converge towards a particular aim. It gives direction to potential, connecting what we think, feel, value, and will with what we attempt to do. Intention, however, does not guarantee a particular outcome. Its expression encounters the conditions of the objective world.
Natural Law and the Conditions of Actuality
The central divider in the infographic represents natural law, laws, and uniformity: the conditions within which intentions become actual.
The world does not necessarily conform to our wishes. Actions encounter existing circumstances, causal relationships, material properties, and limits. We may direct our efforts towards an outcome, but we cannot determine every consequence simply by intending it.
Natural law therefore marks the distinction between what we would like to happen and what actually happens under the conditions that prevail.
On the other side of the model are actions, outcomes, material change, and the “real world”. These represent the objective expressions of intention: what is done, what follows, what changes, and what exists beyond the subject's perspective.
An action may not produce its intended outcome. Circumstances may intervene, our understanding may be incomplete, or the consequences may surprise us. The actual is therefore more than the fulfilment of intention; it is the reality with which intention must contend.
The Return from Actuality to Potential
The cycle does not end with the outcome. Actuality feeds back into potential through reflection, captivation, and inspiration. Reflection is the process of observing what happened and making sense of the experience. We compare expectations with outcomes, recognise consequences, and reconsider our understanding.
Captivation describes what subsequently draws our attention and creates significance. Certain experiences, discoveries, or outcomes stand out to us. They capture our interest, challenge our assumptions, or reveal possibilities we had not previously considered.
Inspiration emerges as these experiences open up new possibilities, meanings, and motivations. What we have encountered in the actual world can transform how we think, what we value, who we understand ourselves to be, and what we want to pursue.
Through this return path, experience enriches the subjective domain. It can reshape identity, redirect will, revise thoughts, alter emotions, and change our understanding of sovereignty and our sphere of influence. These changes inform future intentions, beginning the cycle again.
The Perpetual Relationship
The model describes a reciprocal relationship between agency and experience. Potential directs intention. Intention engages with actuality under Natural Law. Actuality informs reflection, captivation, and inspiration. These renew potential.
We are not merely imposing our ideas upon the world, nor are we simply shaped by what happens to us. We act upon reality and are changed by our encounters with it.
Ultimately, the movement from potential to actual—and back again—is a continuous process of intention, consequence, interpretation, and renewal. We shape the world through what we do, while the world influences what we become and what we choose to do next.
Written by George Tchetvertakov
