Are you stuck in a snapshot?

Is your approach to change a journey along an ever-evolving continuum, or is it a series of whiplash-inducing leaps from one place to another?

For many people, the answer would be, "Whiplash! Most decidedly whiplash!" Part of the reason for that is a mistaken perception that life as they know it is a static and unchanging state.

The reality is that change in our lives is constant and ongoing. Little changes - internal and external - add up to bigger changes. When we pay attention to those small changes and incorporate them into how we see the world, we slowly move along the continuum of change. But when get attached to the permanence of today's state of being, it's like a rubber band being stretched until it finally has no choice but to shoot us towards change like a slingshot.  

This blog is the outcome of my own change process. It reflects an evolution of my ideas (and correspondingly, the focus of my work) that started about two years ago. Over the course of that time I have felt alternately frustrated at feeling stuck and excited about where it all was taking me.

Today I'm more amped than ever about the potential of the path that lies in front of me. I have a lot more clarity about where I am and where I want to take it. At the same time, I realize that it is still "under construction." The supporting pillars are in place with the M.A.P. Maker idea, but how the details will unfold remains to be seen.

In one of the conversations in my 30-in-30 experiment, Arnie Herz and I got to talking about the fact that the evolution I had been experiencing was still a work in progress. "I love the fact that you recognize that you're in a process, and that you're OK with that," said Arnie. "You're not stuck in a snapshot."

I liked that idea so much I jumped up and wrote it down on my whiteboard so i could blog about it later.

Being OK with being in a process is about being OK with the continuum of change. No matter how defined and structured you make your life, there will always be that continuum of change fraying it around the edges.

Life is a moving picture. If you pay attention, you can incorporate the continuum of change as you go and minimize the slingshot effect. But if you insist on staying stuck in a snapshot, at some point the picture has to change.

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM