The quote (attributed to a few people) “if nothing changes, nothing changes” came into my knowledge bank today! As usual with this sort of thing it got me thinking – never a good sign…… and the result is that I want to put it into the context of my own worldview.
Whilst in the context it is ‘usually’ used this is, at least to a certain extent, a wise and useful mantra, when it is taken out of that pretty limited context it becomes something to be very wary of.
In case you are not familiar this seems to be most used in terms of “self-help” suggestions of various sorts. Please note that what I write here is not to denigrate this, there are plenty of people in the world who need to be given tools that will help them get out of a bad place – and this is one such tool. Simplistically the suggestion is that unless you change your behaviour you will keep getting the same results. There is no doubt that a change in your behaviour will impact what comes next, so this, in situations where the behaviour is itself the problem, is wise advice.
Anyone who is familiar with my thinking and worldview through these writings or just through knowing me will be well aware that one of my almost fundamental beliefs is that everything is connected and – importantly in the context of this post – our behaviour does not just affect our outcomes, it also affects other’s outcomes and, in turn, the behaviour of others will affect our outcomes. I have written about the fact that I know that my past decisions have had an impact on the lives of people around me – sometimes people who are not that close.
There is a real conundrum here when you dig a little deeper. Fundamentally it is the same as the Trolley Problem in that it is a choice of harming one or many – the significant difference here is that the ‘one’ is yourself. Can, or even should, you change you behaviour if it is going to do harm to others. Clearly, in the “self-help” context it makes a lot of sense to encourage change in order to facilitate an improvement where the situation that they are in is clearly a bad one. Where the change is rather to ‘improve’ your own (already OK) situation it becomes much more important to consider the impact on other people.
That is not to say that you should never make the change – just that whatever change is considered should be looked at in the context of how it affects others as well as how it affects yourself.
Turning things round – lets assume that no change is made – this equally does not necessarily mean that “nothing changes” because it is rare for anyone to be in a situation where there is no one else who can effect a change in that situation either deliberately or by accident.
So, it is true that if nothing changes, nothing changes – what is misleading is the underlying suggestion that that change has to come from the person themselves. Indeed for many who are most in need of this advice the last person that can effect a change is that person themself – they do not have the tools to dig themselves out of the hole and, if they do effect change it is as likely to be a change for the worse as for the better.
I guess that – like with so many of these pithy motivational statements – my main gripe is that it is reduced to a simplicity that doesn’t really exist. I often had this issue with the folks who sold advice on how to be “better” at doing whatever business you were in. Yes, they came up with lots of catchy phrases like this which – on the surface – seemed like just what you need. Scratch the surface and you find that life – and business – is rarely that straightforward.
Another aspect to this is that it is a warning against procrastination – here rather than specifically ‘changing’ anything it is a case of “get on and do it and stop wasting time”. This is, in my view, quite a different thing to the self-help stuff I was previously discussing although it still comes under the banner of things that we sometimes need to be reminded about. In this scenario there may not be anything specific that needs to change – other than the procrastinating inaction – but rather a need to carry out the actions that are required.
It seems like the longer you ponder this one the more facets you discover – what has just struck me is that “change” itself can also be just a shift in perspective. I wrote to someone the other day about precisely this – how one deals with events and the effect these events have on you is linked. A positive attitude, for instance, can make a trying situation much less stressful. The physical effect may remain the same, but the thoughts and feelings that you have about it can be changed enormously. In terms of “peace of mind” this is something that is important to realise.
With all of this, the underlying thing is that whilst I agree with the sentiments of “if nothing changes, nothing changes” under some circumstances I would, in general, argue more that you cannot avoid change – but you can effect change – and you will be affected by change – both changes you make personally and changes that others impose on you. Crucially – and here I come back to another of my own mantras – you can’t change just one thing. The ripples spread. I am sure that I have written lots around that particular theme (but cannot find anything at the moment).
All of this means that, in reality, we are never in a state where nothing changes – if we were it means that the world has come to a complete stop – clearly not a sensible viewpoint. What is impactful is just how long before a particular change will affect us and in what way will it affect us. You have some control over this when you are the person initiating the change (which is mainly what this particular phraseology us considering in terms of making changes). Even then though, it is possible that the change you make will not affect you for some considerable time.
Its a biggish subject and I am not sure that I have properly covered everything here – I feel that it might need a better explanation of my thinking in some areas – perhaps that will come later.