Day 55 – Warn Notice- Big words

When I was in the OSR master’s program  we studied living systems, and systems thinking and related these ideas to social systems to develop perspectives on how social systems respond in different situations. 

We studied punctuated equilibrium, an evolution theory that instead of evolution happening in small continuous changes over very long times, postulates that what really happens are relatively small periods of very rapid changes followed by eons of very little change followed by very rapid changes.   Kind of a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it theory” of evolution; when things are working well, nothing changes.

We also studied bifurcation points and strange attractors.  These relate to the mathematically study of dynamical systems.  In someway, the system’s solutions revolve around these strange attractors; a strange attractor is like a form of energy that you can’t see but you can see the effects of it.  Kind of like this picture of a magnates effect  on metal filings.  Somehow the strange attractor creates a field of solutions when plotted seem to line up around the attractor.

Now we throw in a little chaos theory into the mix and this gets really interesting.  Chaotic systems have no strange attractors, because a strange attractor implies that there is some sort of order.  When systems are moved into chaotic episodes, they lose their attractors.

So have I completely lost you yet.  If you hang on a little while longer I will start closing the loop and relate this back  to our situation with warn notices.

In living systems and social systems, the strange attractors are thought of as influences that are set and pretty hard to overcome.  The term culture is considered by some to be the collection of strange attractors (I’m being liberal with the word “some”, it may just be me.)  There is a period of disequilibrium (I promise the last big word) when a social system if thrown into chaos when it loses it strange attractors.  During this period the systems scrambles to build new attractors. 

We, being humans, are a combination of living and social systems.  We are living in that we eat, drink, sleep, grow old and died or in other words live.  We are social in that our definition is made up of how we relate to others, like being a Boeing worker, dad, mom, hermit, sister etc.

And now to get to the point.  Whether we find a new position before next Friday or not,  we are about to go through a chaotic episode where we will lose our strange attractors.  This can be very disconcerting if you are trying to cling on to the past; it can be a fun roller coaster ride if you are not.

This is also an opportunity to make changes that you might not want to let slip by you.  Strange attractors can also be related to our habits; habits that have become so ingrained that we may not even notice them anymore.  It is the loss of these habits we feel comfortable with that make the change so disconcerting.

For example, have you ever known a person that was a two pack per day smoker for say 20 years, overweight and out of shape,  who has a heart attack and is able to quit smoking, lose the extra pounds, start exercising and eventually comes away from the whole thing feeling better than they ever had before.  It is not that this person hadn’t tried to quit smoking a 100 times or hadn’t ever started a exercise programs before; it is this idea that the strange attractors; this hidden force would pull the person back into their old habits.  Before the heart attack, they would tug on the person until they would give up and have a smoke or they would not exercise today, even though they know they should. But with the life threaten occurrence of a heart attack, the system is thrown into chaos and all the old strange attractors or habits are thrown out, at least for a little while.

With the heart attack, if you make the changes before the old strange attractors have a chance to recreate you have a much greater chance to make a successful change.

It is also my belief that you can use this to your advantage in situation like we are in.  And you can even do a little planning and be more successful.

Any this should apply whether you are successful in finding a position or laid off because you will still be going through a chaotic change.  A change that you don’t truly know what the outcome will be until you go through it.  The secret is to load up even more change on top of the other change.

Think about what changes that you want to make in your life.  What is important that you would like to change.  Maybe it is exercising more.  Maybe you want to be a better father or mother.  Maybe you wish to lose weight or stop smoking.  Think of what it is that you truly want to change in your life.  This is not for the feint of heart; this is the things that you know will make a quality of life change in your condition.  You may have tried to do these things and failed before, don’t let that stop you if it is what you truly want.  It will be easier this time.

Once you have what you want to accomplish, think about what you can put in place to be successful on day one of your change.  What is it that you have to stop doing and what is it that you have to start doing.  Assume that you will be successful.  If you don’t know what it is like ask people that are successful at what ever it is.  If it is quitting smoking ask people who successfully quit what made it happen for them.

Do as much pre-work and preparation as you can, but don’t worry about it.  Don’t let it stress you out at all.  Come the day of the big change, then implement your changes and don’t look back.  Consciously work hard at sticking to the changes for twenty one days.  This is enough time to cement in your new habits.

Again, don’t worry about it, assume that it will work, and pay attention to how easy the changes are happening for you.  If you start having trouble start looking for something that you are trying to bring back from your past and then let go of it. 

Timing is everything here, you only have a little while before the old habits try to reassert themselves.  If you go through the change and then smoke for a week and then quit, it will be as hard as it ever was.  You have to implement the change as soon as possible.

Sorry for the length of this post, big words always take a lot of explaining. 

If you do this you will be amazed at the changes you can make.    And it doesn’t have to be just one change, the more and bigger the better, though you don’t want to make it overly complicated to accomplish.  Please let me know how it goes, I would love to hear. 

I hope you step up to the plate and swing for a home run.