To change something means to make it different. That seems simple enough, but in fact change isn’t quite as simple as it seems to be.
Change can be either intentional—you set out to create it or choose to be a part of it—or unintentional—you are at the effect of actions or events you didn’t initiate or of your own actions’ unexpected and unintended consequences.
Change may be either self-directed—you manage the process and the pace—or other-directed—you follow a program or set of external guidelines.
Change also occurs across a spectrum of magnitude from micro to macro.
Three Magnitudes of Change
To determine the magnitude of the change you want to make, ask yourself how different from the status quo it is. Change generally fits into one of these three categories.
- Alteration/Modification
- Meaning: to make different without changing into something else
- Synonym: vary
- Example: “We need to modify the agenda to fit within the allotted time.”
- Life Change: follow through on an intention to do something you wouldn’t or don’t ordinarily do.
- Substitution
- Meaning: to put or use (one thing) in the place of another
- Synonym: exchange
- Example: “Can you substitute brown rice for white rice in this recipe?”
- Life change: change an existing habit by retaining the same cue and reward but substituting a different behavior.
- Transformation
- Meaning: to make a thorough, dramatic, or radical change in form, function, or character
- Synonym: regenerate
- Example: “She transformed the area behind her house into a vegetable garden.”
- Life change: accomplish a goal that changes your personal status quo.
The first two types of change involve novelty (something new, original, or unusual), which can be innovative or merely distracting. The third type of change, transformation, is altogether different from the other two but generally requires both as part of its ongoing process.
If You Can Predict the Outcome,
It Isn’t Transformation.
Several decades ago, I worked for a newspaper in northern California. The job was easy and my co-workers congenial, but I was bored. As I considered looking for a new job (substitution), it occurred to me that I wasn’t exactly giving my all to the job I had. Was I contributing to my dissatisfaction? I wouldn’t know unless I tried a different approach. So I traded my jeans and Birkenstocks for business attire, adjusted my attitude, started taking on various additional responsibilities; I even changed my name. In a surprisingly short amount of time, my relationship with my supervisor improved significantly, and I was promoted into first one and then another position that hadn’t previously existed. What I’d wanted was a more satisfying job. I couldn’t possibly have known what that would look like or who I would become once I had transformed myself. I stayed there for three more years and got my next (even better) job as a direct result of the recommendations from two department heads at the newspaper.
The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation. Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration—how do you go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone else? —Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
If you are trying to make modifications or substitutions (aka cosmetic changes) when transformation is what’s called for, you’re bound to fail or get disappointing results, and you’re likely to end up frustrated. You could even make things worse.
Although the concept of transformation is appealing, people tend to play small by making alterations to situations, structures, and states of affairs that need to be dealt with much more extremely. Personal transformation is risky, often disorienting, and the outcome can never be guaranteed. It’s like entering a dark cave where the usual points of reference disappear and your internal navigation system seems to be on the fritz. (An unexpected outcome I experienced at the newspaper was the extremely negative, sometimes hostile, response from a co-worker who had been in the department much longer than I had. But I eventually won her over, through repetition and perseverance.)
The process of transformation might require something to be destroyed to make room for something new. Discomfort with destruction can lead us to allow unsatisfying situations to persist until they implode on their own and force us to deal with the consequences (see unintentional and other-directed, above).
Much better to learn how to get lost and navigate the liminal (in-between) space; then you can create and discover both what you want and who you want to be.