What is Change?
The verb change in the Oxford dictionary means to become/make different (intransitive; to become different. Change is a verb and a verb is an action, so I would say the best way to think of change is cause and effect. Change is a ‘doing word’, an action. I hear catch phrases like, “I am the change” or “become the change”. The verb itself is changing in current language.
Today a lot of people think change is the end product, and it is in and of itself the subject or a noun. Well, change cannot truly be the noun. Something has to exist prior to the process of change. When change occurs, the resulting effect is different from what existed prior. This is seemingly obvious, or commonly understood. For the purpose of basic analysis, it is important to provide a bit of reasoning. We can, therefore, express that the result of the process of change being different is transformation.
Change can be direct/conscious and contrived, or it can be indirect/unconscious and uncontrived.
The technical, objective meaning of change is not what comes to mind generally. One tends to relate change subjectively: As a life change and personal transformation. In fact change operates on various levels. Think of the cosmos, the universe and the constant movement of planets, the Earth. On the human scale, change is multilayered, operating on the personal and the impersonal levels, such as organizational or systemic and, or societal change.
Change Recognition
Reflection Exercise
Let’s begin with the first step:
Try to recall a time when a change/changes happened without your awareness. Ask yourself was this change conscious or unconscious? (How and when did you know a change occurred?)
Reflect on at least one occurrence or time a change happened (we’ll keep it simple for now, so think of a personal /individual change with yourself).
Think it through and write your thoughts down, copiously list your thoughts about the change; and, consider the before instance and after.
You can repeat this exercise many times. If you want to be a bit ambitious, you can keep a notebook with your thoughts. There is no right or wrong thought(s), therefore there are no mistakes in this exercise.