We all want to change.
And change is constant.
But we want the ability to create specific change.
We want the change we want.
I’ve been thinking about change for 20 years. And I’m proposing a 21st-century adjustment to the way we think about it.
The Old Change
According to the old-fashioned Change theory, at first we don’t think about change, then we start to think about it, then we prepare and then we take action.
Sometimes during our change efforts, we Relapse.
If we’re successful, we enter the Maintenance stage, and once we get there we’re different than before. Then we terminate our change efforts, because the change process is complete.
It’s logical.
It can be useful.
But it’s linear.
And change is often not.
We are complex systems living in complex systems.
And change in complex systems includes tipping points. Butterfly effects. And unanticipated outcomes.
Our change efforts transform the world. Both in and around us.
Change alters our relationships. And those relationships change us.
A change in perspective transforms the way we see the world. And the world, in turn, modifies our perspective.
As soon as we begin to think about change, things change.
Once we begin contemplating change, we are already viewing life differently. Already, there are more possibilities. We may find those possibilities exhilarating or terrifying, but once we know about them, it’s hard to unknow that they’re there.
After a couple of decades of working for intentional change in social systems & a number of years immersed in my own n=1 experiments to improve my health, I’ve revised the old stages of change.
To reflect the reality of creating intentional change in a complex world.
The New Change
Precontemplation & then Contemplation. That’s how change begins.
But let’s compress Preparation & Action into a new stage: Engagement. Because as soon as we begin to think about change, things change.
And let’s reimagine the idea of relapse.
Because as long as we remain committed to biohacking, as long as we remain curious about why we might be reverting to behaviours we would like to change, and as long as we remain committed to that change, non-linearity in our progress doesn’t always have to be a relapse.
It can be a chance to learn more about ourselves.
An opportunity to adjust course.
Try something new.
Refine our approach.
It’s through the fits and starts that we can come to know ourselves more deeply as we move through the process of change. And through this deepening self-knowledge, we are changed. And become more effective at creating intentional change.
It’s what the n=1 movement is all about~.
The New Stages of Change: A Summary
Precontemplation
We are precontemplative when we are not yet considering change.
Contemplation
As in the original Stages of Change theory, we begin by contemplating a change we want to make.
Engaged
Really, we are engaged in change as soon as we begin the process of contemplation. But we don’t always move from contemplation to engagement.
The shift happens when we make some kind of conscious resolution. Yes. This is what I want (or need) to change.
We prepare, we take action. And as soon as we engage, we begin to change.
The change process may be non-linear. It may involve some vacillation between our previous and our desired state, but we stay engaged.
We remain observant.
We keep learning and improving our strategy to help integrate our change.
Integrated
We are integrated in our change process when it becomes part of us.
Even if we experience a reversion to old patterns, we pop back to our changed state because we have established a new equilibrium.
Actualized
Self-actualization is the goal.
Once we embark on the process of change, we are exploring what we are capable of becoming. We are already becoming more actualized.
Back in 1943, in paper called A Theory of Human Motivation, Abraham Maslow defined actualization as “the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for [the individual] to become actualized in what [she or] he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.”
