Thursday, August 21, 2014

The agent for change is changing


I started to write this post a few days ago, yet struggled to bring it together.  Last night the why was revealed...and now it's taken on a different tone.

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Back when I started this 'transformation' (not a fan of that word, but it's better than 'journey'!), I happened upon a local Facebook group. In fact, I didn't even have a FB account then.  I remember the hesitation before I posted the first time.  How it took me weeks of reading through people's comments to learn the ropes and feel my way.  Over time I gained the confidence to contribute, which led to me joining my first group activity - with complete strangers.  I can smile at this now, but back then, it was a fear, and it was real.

It's been a while since I've been active in the group.  I'm still a member.  Sentiment means I can't let it go, even though I rarely pop in to catch up on happenings.

Last night, the founder of the group posted about the group's impending closure.  The admins are burnt out and aren't getting what they need from the group themselves.  That, combined with the number of lurkers in the group have led them to make the decision.

I'm strangely affected by this.

In my health and wellness studies there's a fair focus on the psychology of change and the typical stages you go through.  The first two are pre-contemplation and contemplation.  These resonate VERY strongly with me.  After all, it's not like I suddenly woke up one morning and sorted my shit out.  Sure, I had a health scare, but in reality, when I analyse it all, the actual process began many MANY years ago, before 12wbt had even been conceived.

Without knowing it I was accumulating knowledge that would eventually point me in the right direction.  I’d read a little about different diets.  In fact, if you open some of the boxes I have in storage, you’ll find dusty, dog-eared titles such as; Eat Right For Your Type, The Liver Cleansing Diet, Fit For life, all with sticky notes and scribbles in the margins. Contemplation and I were best friends.
So these stages.  They may take a few weeks, months, years or decades.  And there are no formulae to correlate length with success. No means of predicting whether a quick transition between denial, thought and action is more effective than a drawn out series of seemingly ineffective attempts.
But there is plenty of data that supports the need to find your tribe.  That success is more likely when supported in a group setting. Should it be a two-way street though?

Do those who have successfully navigated change and live a healthy lifestyle have a kind of responsibility to tell their story?  Not so much for their own sense of importance, but in the hope that others may change their lives too. 

You just never know who is watching, listening, reading, preparing and contemplating change.

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