Which Are You Driven by? Change or Transformation
Photo: Khamkéo Vilaysing, Unsplash
Growth is a given.
We grow up, grow old, and hopefully, grow wise. We transform and change throughout our lives, often without giving much thought to the processes which move and re-form us.
It’s easy to see that I am not the same physical being I was at age 2 or 7…
I don’t view the world the same way either… but what exactly happened? How did all these changes and transformations take place and what the heck is the difference between being changed, and transforming?
⚡️ Change is created externally.
Changes generate crises, traumas, and reactions. We are forced to change. We think about how we “wish to” change, so the change starts with an idea or thought that we have which was prompted by something that occurs to us, or we force something else to change, because of an idea or thought we’ve had. Changes are usually quicker to occur and thus easier to see.
🌀 Transformation occurs internally.
They are self-managed choices supported through action. Transformations begin with a feeling, an experience of some internal shift that we often can’t name until we begin to see the results of our actions. Transformations often catch us by surprise as though they occurred by magic. Transformations take time so we often aren’t paying attention to the shift as it happens- it’s only when we find ourselves acting, saying, or thinking in a new way, that we are aware we have gone through a transformation.
In my ebook FLOW, (which you can get free when you subscribe to the newsletter…😁), I talk about the forces in life that mold and change us. We are often unaware of them… They push on us as steadily as the wind pushes on trees, shaping them over decades into twisted sculptural beauty that describes in three dimensions the force of the air we cannot otherwise see.
Photo by Jim Witkowski on Unsplash
⚡️ Change
⚡️ We can force ourselves to change to align with an idea or vision we have of ourselves or the world. This often causes a quick and adverse reaction, feelings of anger, frustration, and stress, and can lead to failure or overwhelm very quickly.
⚡️ We can attempt to change the world or people around us in order to fit our ideas of “how things should be”. This also often causes stress, and conflict and eventually unravels when people or situations revert.
Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash
🌀 Transformation
🌀 We notice that how we are thinking, acting or feeling is not benefitting us and so we make a conscious decision to think, act or feel differently. As we practice this new way of BE-ing, we slowly rewire our system into what becomes our new normal.
🌀 We find ourselves having shifted ideas, opinions, or reactions without consciously trying to do so.
For example… have you ever found yourself having a completely new reaction or response to something and you wonder when you “learned” that new response? That’s a transformation that you created internally, unconsciously, and only noticed when it surfaced in an external action or situation.
🧐 Conscious transformation can create long-lasting and beneficial effects in our lives. Because changes generate crises, traumas, and reactions, and transformations are own and self-managed choices through taking action. The first, (Change) is useful in periods of Unconsciousness, and the second, (Transformation), is useful in periods of Consciousness.
As we move from unconscious action to conscious awareness we begin to see more options for ourselves. We become aware of new perspectives which lead us to new actions, that create change and new circumstances, which lead us to see more options, and the spiral continues…
Consciousness will not eliminate uncertainty, anguish, or crises. What consciousness will do is give you a purpose, a logic, it will help you through it until you find the answer. Unconsciousness will plunge you further into unnecessary suffering for not seeing that everything always has a logic and a reason.
The choice is yours to peel back the layers of unconscious action or leave them be and let yourself be moved by change rather than transformed.
Which do you choose?
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