Change
2022. New year. My ears are still bombarded by litanies of change.
I would love to resurrect Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. His uvula shall scream, once and for all, the French words that he penned: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
It is incontestable that better tomorrows can be achieved through positive changes. The famous saying usually attributed to Einstein is not hokum: we cannot really solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. If we have New Year's resolutions, common sense requires strategic practical tangible actions that are different from our usual behaviors.
It does not matter whether the changes are marginal/small, adaptive/big, or radical/idealistic as long as the actions are going toward the preferred futures.
However, as Bishop and Hines have opined in Teaching About the Future (2012), "change occurs in the midst of constants." The first principle for understanding change is to recognize how much is actually changing. In our zeal to build a better life, we are so busy with "changing" that what is "not changing" is ignored.
With every New Year that comes, enthusiasm lies on envisioning a preferred future, on strategically planning how to get there, and on practically taking actions to transform the dream into reality. We have laser focus on the feeling of "newness" to ignite our zest for life, so much so that we forget to ask: what is staying the same?
Ignoring the constants would increase the entrapment of ourselves to two possible unfortunate scenarios: (1) achieving the dream but not feeling fulfilled, aka hedonic adaptation; (2) feeling stuck in the process of achieving the dream, because it just did not feel right at the middle of the journey, aka impostor syndrome.
We do not notice how, at times, the external world/reality stays the same no matter how much internal change has happened within; likewise, we do not notice, how, at times, the internal world/reality stays the same no matter how much external change has manifested in the world.
Before choosing and envisioning our preferred futures, we forget to thoroughly examine:
1. Our internal world and assumptions: How do we currently view the world? How do we view ourselves? Narratives are important: the stories we tell ourselves is the foundation of our everyday life. Strong belief systems can be constructive: it may carry us to futures that we truly prefer; however, it can also be destructive: it may direct us to opposite futures that we thought we wanted.
2. Our external environment and systems: What is happening in our environment? How does it operate? Systems of living are important: external events cannot be fully controlled even if it can be partly influenced as an individual. Unearthing deep cultural beliefs will reveal social, historical, economic, and political stories that can both create constructive and destructive futures.
Recognizing the constants within the changes that happen can unpack and deepen our preferred futures.
If we are not conscious of the constants within our internal world, we would still be hunted by our personal assumptions and worldviews that are potentially destructive; likewise, if we are not aware of the constants in our external environment, we would remain stuck in adapting to systems of living that can be totally isolating.
We certainly have to balance the Yin and the Yang.
