Before
we learned how to be who we are, we were something simpler — curious, open, and
unfiltered. There was a time when our sense of self was not defined by habit,
expectation, or repetition. The Cow Path Model of Change™ begins here, at this
place we call Original Potential.
Our Original Potential is not a blank slate. It is the capacity, the ability,
the preferences — our true self nature — that we are born with. This is the
part of us that arrives already carrying possibility, individuality, and the quiet
urge to grow. Beneath every learned behavior and borrowed belief, there remains
this deeper truth about who we are.
In
the Cow Path Model of Change™, Original Potential is the living capacity within
each of us to perceive clearly and respond authentically. It’s that intuitive
coherence we sense when thoughts, feelings, and actions move in harmony.
This potential longs for expression. Even when life’s conditioning pushes it
into the background, it does not disappear. It remains within us — like a small
light that never goes out, no matter how long it’s been covered by the dust or
distraction of external circumstances or social programming.
To remember our Original Potential is to recall that we are shaped by
experience, yet not entirely defined by it. It is our constant, the quiet
presence beneath every change we’ve ever made.
As
we walk through life, we build paths through repetition — the cow paths of the
mind. Some trails strengthen us; others carry us away from the ease and
curiosity we once knew.
Conditioning begins early. We absorb what is rewarded and what is withheld,
what is accepted and what is not. Those who shaped our early world were doing
their best, yet their own patterns and challenges often became part of our learning. Over
time, the Old Cow Paths grow so familiar that we mistake them for the landscape
itself.
Losing contact with Original Potential is not failure. It is part of being
human — a natural side effect of adaptation. Yet even in the most well-worn
patterns, something in us remembers the freedom of that unmarked field.
Rediscovery
often begins quietly. A sense that something once natural has become effortful.
A recognition that an old way of being no longer fits. In those moments of
pause, we begin to sense the presence of Original Potential again.
Awareness opens space. In that space, we might notice glimpses of intuition or
creativity rising to the surface. The Cow Path Model of Change™ helps us
understand this as a return to inner coherence — not through effort, but
through remembering.
Each realization, however small, brushes a little dust from the light that’s
always been there. Over time, that light becomes easier to see, and our
relationship with ourselves grows gentler and more honest.
Living from Original Potential means allowing awareness to move into ordinary life. Our habits and responsibilities remain, but something within them shifts. Actions that once felt mechanical begin to feel chosen.
Moments
of awareness show us where new paths might form. We notice patterns that no
longer serve us and rather than forcing a change, we allow a new possibility to
unfold. The Cow Path Model of Change™ reminds us that transformation begins not
with striving, but with noticing.
Each conscious moment becomes a new step — a subtle turn toward alignment
rather than repetition.
As
contact with Original Potential strengthens, identity begins to loosen. Parts
of who we have been no longer fit quite as they once did. Growth becomes both
remembering and becoming — returning to what is genuine while allowing what is
emerging to take form.
This evolution is not a rejection of the past; it is an integration of all we
have been with what we are now capable of expressing. Our Original Potential
continues to shape our Future Self, not as a destination but as a direction — a
way of walking through life that feels increasingly congruent and whole.
The
next component of the Cow Path Model of Change™ explores the Internal Robot —
the automatic system that keeps the old cow paths active. Recognizing this
mechanism is part of reclaiming awareness.
By understanding its patterns, we begin to see how often life repeats itself
out of habit rather than intention. Awareness itself becomes the beginning of
freedom.
Original Potential reminds us that before any pattern was formed, we were
already whole, capable, and ready for growth. That is where every true change
begins
© Terri Lee Cooper – Cow Path Model of Change™