My wife and I are moving from Colorado to Oregon. Most of our belongings are in boxes, we are taking care of all the things that need to be taken care of when selling and buying a house and going through an interstate move. This time feels chaotic and it is easy to be overwhelmed by everything that is happening at the same time. I definitely feel overwhelmed at times. We tell ourselves that once the move is over, we will be settled in a new place, and that we will enjoy the new order that will enter our life.
Reflecting on this, it occurred to me that big changes often involve chaos and that the chaos ultimately unfolds in a new order. I have seen this happen with big projects at work. At first, we may not quite know where we are heading, and how we will get there. Different team members have different ideas, and sometimes we don’t communicate as well as we could. Ideas and ambitions may clash, but after a while the dust settles and the project takes shape. As an officer in the Fire Service I have experienced a similar process many times. Arriving on scene it usually was not clear what was happening and what the problem and associated dangers were. Where is a fire located? Who is in danger? Is there an adequate water supply? Are there escape routes? Which firefighters are on the engine and what are their skills? The most important thing to do was to size up the scene before taking action, to make an initial plan of attack, distribute tasks, and call for more resources when needed. All these steps amount to reducing the chaos of the fire scene. When improvising in jazz the same happens. Initially, one may not perceive the order in a tune, and improvisations are chaotic and unintentionally dissonant. But after rehearsing for a while, the chord progressions start to make sense, and an order in the improvisations develops.
Nature often follows the same progression from chaos into order. In his book Order out of Chaos Nobel Prize laureate Ilya Prigogine points out that in nature new structures often arise when a system is in an energetic state far from equilibrium. An electrical spark may have caused the first molecules of life to be formed, a turbulent cloud driven by heat may grow into an organized convection cell. The reason is that a system often needs energy to evolve into a new state. As a mundane example–at least for a Dutchman–consider boiling potatoes. Putting potatoes in a pan with water does not change them other than that they get wet; one needs to boil the water. The heat supplied creates a chaotic motion of molecules that supplies the energy to turn hard un-boiled potatoes into soft and crumbly boiled potatoes. In physics language: one needs to overcome the activation energy to turn the potatoes into a new state.
The concept of activation energy has an analogy to personal change too. To make a change, one needs to overcome an activation energy. Moving from Colorado to Oregon takes much physical and emotional energy. The activation energy required for such a move could have prevented us from taking that step. This principle also applies to other aspects of our life. Changing jobs, being outgoing to meet new people, starting a new project or taking up a new hobby, all require energy. For some of us it is easy to muster that energy, for others the energy barrier seems unsurmountable.
How are you dealing with the chaos associated with change? Does it excite you or does it feel unsettling? If chaos feels unsettling, what practices can you use to make it easier to deal with it? Whether it is meditation, exercise, spending time with friends, or getting the help of a coach, you might be able to take steps to better handle the chaos. Is it hard for you to mobilize the energy needed for going through a change? If so, what can you do mobilize that energy? Sometimes it helps to break down a big task into smaller more manageable tasks, sometimes better self-care is called for, and for others it may help to break the habit of worrying. A coach may help you to take any of these steps. And lastly, can you trust that the chaos associated with a transition in your life leads to new order? Without that trust the chaos is just an unsettling distraction, while trusting that something new will grow can make it easier to just accept the chaos and go with the turbulent flow!