Possibilities and Actualities

So one of the nicer things about my job - probably about any job - is when you see possibilities.

This happens sometimes - oddly enough, when you are outside of your normal work environment.  It is at these times that we see what the possibilities of our career field might be.  I am not sure what triggers it - perhaps it is the fact that we are around others who in our field, perhaps it is because we are learning new things that we can apply, perhaps it is because simply are out of the grunge and daily tasks which make up most of our day.  It is at these moments that we can grasp what is possible in our field, what can be achieved, perhaps even what real accomplishment looks like.

What the possibilities are.

And then we come back to our actual work lives.  Back to the grunge and pettiness and politics and mindless daily drivel of our jobs.  The things we hate.  The behaviors that drive us batty.  The terrible ways in which we do not aim for greatness every day but instead for mediocrity - or perhaps it is better defined as sanity in an insane environment.  The possibilities of what could be slip away from us faster than we wish, leaving us with perhaps one or two sparks in an otherwise completely dark and desolate sky that once was full of stars.

What the actualities are.

How does one bridge the gap between possibilities and actualities?  Or perhaps more accurately, how does one  cling to the possibilities long enough to move them into the realm of actualities?  Is it is as simple as merely holding on?  Or is it, as I suspect, accepting that the actualities of one's current situation will simply not allow the possibilities to exist.

In which case, the situation must be changed.  Or corrected.