Understanding Change

Why it's so hard to change and what is the most effective way to change yourself to change the world

Change the world!

… is one phrase we, millennials, have heard often during our lifetime.

But what does this mean, to change the world? And is change always good? What does it mean for me, personally? Why is it important? How much energy should I allocate to it? Why should I change in the first place? What do I start with? Etc… etc….

Wow, so many questions...

I’m sure that, if you’ve bought this book, you probably understand the urgency of our need to change the world. It is something that we have to act on immediately!

BUT! Before we change anything, we need to first understand Change.

We need to ask ourselves and try to understand all the WH questions regarding it. How else would we change, if we don’t know anything about what it really means, right?

So, let’s dig deep into the mystery we all commonly refer to as Change.

What is change

Change means to ‘become something different’. It can be used both as a noun and a verb.

Change also means to: alter, swap, exchange, substitute, switch, convert, replace, transform, trade, modify, amend, adjust, adapt, reconstruct, renew, remake, rearrange, and, my favorite ones, evolve and progress.

Judging just by the actions above, you can sort of get the general idea of what it means to change and what kind of actions we will be engaging in during this amazing period that lies ahead of us.

Change can be positive, negative or neutral. It can bring positive value, it can bring damage (negative value) or it can not bring any value at all. In the Kaizen system (of which I will go into detail later) we call these plus-value (or value-adding), minus-value (value-altering) and zero-value (non-value-adding).

So, when we think of change in our case, we always need to be thinking about

• Beneficial change, positive, value adding actions.

• Any neutral, non-value adding actions will lead to waste.

• Any negative, minus-value actions will hinder our progress.

Might sound like a very obvious thing to say, but, between you and me, how often do you stop and think about whether or not the actions you are about to do will bring or take away value in your life or the life of other people? And not just actions, but also words. And thoughts.

That negative comment you’re about to write on social media, does it make the world better or bitter? That mean comment you’re about to make to your co-worker, will it make your relationship better or worse? That thing that you are about to buy, will it bring about positive change in the world or will it hinder somebody’s progress? etc.

Once we train our mind to always look only for value-adding things in life, then for sure, the only direction we will be heading will be forward and upward.

So, although I have prepared an entire chapter on Change, I want you to think of this not just as Change, but as a positive, plus-value-adding concept. I want you to think in terms of Progress.