Ever run into someone you haven’t seen in a while, maybe 2 years, or 5 years, or even 25 years? Chances are you thought, “Wow, they’ve changed.” Now if you saw them every day you might not have noticed those changes as most are very gradual.
You cannot sit and watch a man bald (although Zippy The Pinhead once claimed this), but you certainly will notice if you haven’t seen each other in a decade and his hair is gone!
You deal with yourself every day. There are very significant changes occurring over time, but you are probably not noticing them. You may have close to zero control over any changes if you aren’t paying attention, and of course changes can be good, bad or indifferent.
“And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.”
-Pink Floyd
Many of us, whether 16 or 60 or any age, think we are who we are, but that is pretty much NONSENSE. We change regularly, we evolve. This may or may not be conscious. Some will certainly be externally driven, especially if we work or live in a rapidly changing field or area. Hopefully we are trying to improve, to become better.
People talk about accumulating baggage. People talk about getting rid of old baggage that might be slowing down or stymieing themselves from changing or doing what they really want to. I’d like to suggest that the baggage is no longer yours. A different “you” packed the baggage. You’ve changed a lot from when you accumulated old baggage and it is no longer yours; it can be jettisoned (thanks to Alan Weiss, Rock Star of Consulting, for this metaphor).
I’m not saying to jettison family and ignore friends, but as you change so will your colleagues and friends. I have very old friends I still keep in touch with and see, but we have limited things in common today, far fewer than the past.
You is a very fluid concept”
– Hitch, the movie
I’m not the person I was two years ago – and neither should you be.
I’m going to be a very different person in a few years as well. Even the most static of us changes a lot (and Rock Stars are not the most static among us).
My changes are not as radical as an ardent Catholic friend who got a PhD in Religion, became a Muslim, got another PhD in Philosophy, and now is dressing as a woman and taking female hormones (wonder what his girlfriend thinks of these changes?).
However, compared to a few years ago, I’m very different and so are you.
Some changes are good, some changes not so much. Some changes we have control over or at least some control if we pay attention. Paying attention is important.
If a band is touring and playing only songs from 20 years ago they are has-beens, NOT Rock Stars.
Change is inevitable, so embrace it, direct it, channel it.
If you are going to become a Rock Star you will need to take control over some of that change.
Isn’t this site really about positive change, about changing/evolving into a Rock Star?
And yes, sometimes Change can be Rapid – although most overnight sensations take years (and that’s not a contradiction).
It is amazing how we don’t notice slow changes in our appearance, our habits, our waistline, and even in our careers until they have consolidated into massive (sometimes irreversible) changes, sometimes good, sometimes not so good!
Nice writeup!
Working on shrinking my waistline now, Cheech, and regaining my “boyish figure” 🙂
So true!
Love the Floyd quote – kind of depressing though the way they put it!
Yes, depressing, if you are the one to miss the starting gun and suddenly feel like you’ve been wasting the last ten years of your life.
Hopefully we aren’t 🙂
Our field is changing even faster than music, faster than even pure technology – if you don’t embrace change, you are in the wrong field!