May 2013 was a pivotal moment in my life. After resisting change for many years, I finally broke. Before 2013, I had been coping with external pressure for a long time and each additional load still seemed manageable. In 2013, external pressure suddenly came from everywhere and became overwhelming. I finally stopped fighting Change.
Only with the knowledge of hindsight, I realise that strong-minded people need lots of pressure before they are willing to adapt to Change. In certain circumstances, your strength becomes your weakness, without you even realising this. I think, feel and believe that a widely perceived weakness (i.e., vulnerability) is actually often a strength.
Change is a complicated process. It involves a lot of steps and filters before it happens. The steps that I have identified until now are: hearing, listening, accepting, believing, willingness, and faith. There are filters between these steps and a famous / notorious one is between hearing and listening. That filter makes some people hear what they want to hear. These filters often create a mismatch between Sender, Message and Receiver.
As a picture can speak more than a thousand words, I have made a new diagram to outline the above concept:
Initially, I was surprised to see my 3rd concept return in this diagram: Faith, Beliefs and Willpower. Then I realised that I shouldn’t be surprised as Change is also a Choice.
For Sender, the worrying part in Change is the existence of “filters”. These filters are like dominoes: only when they fall down, a next level is achieved. The difficult part starts at believing. You can hear, listen and accept the truth but believing in a new truth requires an update of your existing Belief systems. Belief systems are like human firmware and firmware is rarely updated.
Once existing beliefs are broken down, and replaced by new beliefs based on new truths, it requires Willpower and Faith to execute Change. Willpower may however be of an opportunistic nature. Without Faith, any Change is short-lived.
I must admit that I have been a little skeptic whether my 3rd concept was actually a genuine concept on top of Needs, Wants & Beliefs and the 7 Belief systems. Not any longer.
Changes (1972) by David Bowie – artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Ch-ch-changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
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