The power and potential of patient change

My Passion Catalyst work is all about change and transformation. Over the years I have had the chance to see a lot of people make changes in their lives. While there are many factors that contribute to successful, sustainable change, one of the biggest I have seen is a decidedly unsexy word you hardly ever hear in our culture of immediate gratification...

Patience.

It's not a word that gets the blood pumping or inspires action, but time and again I've talked to people who look back and say that it was a key component of their successful change. Or conversely, that a lack of it was a key obstacle.

Impatience = Frustration = Obstacle

Lately I've been talking to former clients to get insights based on their personal experience on what can help a client maintain the momentum of the work we've done together once they wrap up their time with me.

This post was prompted by a piece of feedback from someone I worked with two years ago, who is now working part time and going to school in pursuit of his new path. "I did lose momentum for a while," he said, referring to the time following our work together. "The biggest obstacle was frustration. Looking back, I can see that it needed to take the time it took, but at the time it felt like nothing was happening." That frustration slowed him down.

While I'm a big fan of sweeping, stupendous change when it's feasible, the fact is that most of the successful change I have seen has come piece by piece, step by step. When people are able to set their expectations accordingly and stay in the process, their potential for success goes up immensely.

A patient change approach to life

It's not just our careers where the patient change idea applies. It's everywhere in our lives. For example, compared to five years ago, my "sustainable living" habits have changed dramatically, but that didn't happen all at once. The changes came into my life in drips and drops.

First, I started  gaining awareness about sustainability issues (primarily through the reading I did for both my alternative energy and sustainability blogs). Once I started understanding the issues more, I couldn't put the genie back in the bottle. Ignorance was bliss, but now I had some knowledge.

I started being more aware of my energy consumption. I started being more conscious about not leaving the lights on. I started being more aware of how far the food I bought traveled to get to the store (how much fossil fuel did it take to transport these bananas 5,000 miles to get here?). I didn't always choose to forego the bananas, but at least I was aware that there were consequences to consider.

Slowly, I started buying organic fruits and vegetables. Just occasionally at first, but more and more over time. Today, organic produce is such a habit that I don't even pay attention to the non-organic section of the store.

Then came an awareness of the importance of supporting local business. I started shopping at a locally owned grocery store, rather than the big chain. I started paying even more attention to where the food was from.

My most recent shift has been buying canvas bags for my groceries rather than using plastic bag after plastic bag. A small thing, but another step towards a substantial cumulative change.

There are still a lot more changes that I could make, and no doubt many more that I will. The important part is that the changes I have made have stuck. Slowly but surely, they have become an ingrained part of my life. 

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM