Comments on: Can A Person Change? Part Two http://www.levnow.com/blog/2008/04/14/can-a-person-change-part-two/ Building a Solid Foundation for Your Ideal Life Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:09:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Tabs http://www.levnow.com/blog/2008/04/14/can-a-person-change-part-two/#comment-29024 Tabs Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:57:57 +0000 http://www.levnow.com/blog/2008/04/14/can-a-person-change-part-two/#comment-29024 Jake, I love the word Transformation. Your words "I don’t think change happens out of fixing something about yourself that you don’t like. I think it happened because you took on new thoughts, a new future that called forth a new person." How very powerful they verbalized what I was thinking. I often say "you wake up one morning and you are not the same person, things are different." It really is the transformation taking place, is a result in the change in thought. Maybe we should not focus on the word "change," it may seem somewhat negative, not natural, at least that seems like what we have turned the word into, but "to transform" sounds more organic, does not seem to need as much effort as "change". Thank you so much for your insightful words, you have truely added value here. Tabs Jake,
I love the word Transformation.

Your words “I don’t think change happens out of fixing something about yourself that you don’t like. I think it happened because you took on new thoughts, a new future that called forth a new person.”

How very powerful they verbalized what I was thinking. I often say “you wake up one morning and you are not the same person, things are different.” It really is the transformation taking place, is a result in the change in thought.

Maybe we should not focus on the word “change,” it may seem somewhat negative, not natural, at least that seems like what we have turned the word into, but “to transform” sounds more organic, does not seem to need as much effort as “change”.

Thank you so much for your insightful words, you have truely added value here.

Tabs

]]> By: Jake Ewing http://www.levnow.com/blog/2008/04/14/can-a-person-change-part-two/#comment-29023 Jake Ewing Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:33:05 +0000 http://www.levnow.com/blog/2008/04/14/can-a-person-change-part-two/#comment-29023 I took a few courses with Landmark Education a few years ago, and a part of it that really stuck with me was a conversation about the difference between change and transformation. Change, the conversation went, is always mapped against the past. We have a past behavior that we don't particularly like and we're trying to change it--I have a bad temper and now I'm trying to be nicer to people. The problem is that trying to change something referenced against the past actually reinforces the reality of the past undesired behavior. What sort of person would be trying to change to be nicer? A person who was ill-tempered. It can never really escape the past. Transformation, the conversation went, was an acceptance of exactly the way things are that allowed a choice of any possibility, completely distinct from the past. I can see at least one place where I've had this "transformation." I used to be a shy person; I rarely spoke to strangers. Now I speak publicly for a living. I never set out to work on being less shy. However, I got interested in my future life involving other people to a much greater degree, and that future live pulled me into dealing with people more and more until one day I looked around and the shyness was just gone. But I never set out to change it. It sounds like your journal entry points to some kind of transformation. I don't think change happens out of fixing something about yourself that you don't like. I think it happened because you took on new thoughts, a new future that called forth a new person. I took a few courses with Landmark Education a few years ago, and a part of it that really stuck with me was a conversation about the difference between change and transformation. Change, the conversation went, is always mapped against the past. We have a past behavior that we don’t particularly like and we’re trying to change it—I have a bad temper and now I’m trying to be nicer to people. The problem is that trying to change something referenced against the past actually reinforces the reality of the past undesired behavior. What sort of person would be trying to change to be nicer? A person who was ill-tempered. It can never really escape the past.

Transformation, the conversation went, was an acceptance of exactly the way things are that allowed a choice of any possibility, completely distinct from the past.

I can see at least one place where I’ve had this “transformation.” I used to be a shy person; I rarely spoke to strangers. Now I speak publicly for a living. I never set out to work on being less shy. However, I got interested in my future life involving other people to a much greater degree, and that future live pulled me into dealing with people more and more until one day I looked around and the shyness was just gone. But I never set out to change it.

It sounds like your journal entry points to some kind of transformation. I don’t think change happens out of fixing something about yourself that you don’t like. I think it happened because you took on new thoughts, a new future that called forth a new person.

]]>