Contact:
Joyce McClure
818/761-9314
joycemcc@earthlink.net
RECOGNIZING CHOICE POINTS: The Progress Path of Change
By
Sydney Rice, M.Ed.
While putting the finishing touches on my book, Choice Points: Navigating Your Career Using
the Unique PaperRoomŌ Process[1], I still didn’t have a
title. I knew my clients changed after
going through the process, but the book was about much more than change. Then a friend invited me to a conference
featuring Gregg Braden[2],
an earth scientist. I accepted the
invitation, feeling there would be something there that I needed for my
book. Sure enough, he began to speak
about something called “choice points,” explaining that in 1957 a Princeton
physicist, Hugh Everett III, suggested that for every moment of our lives there
are many moments, possibilities and outcomes playing out simultaneously and
present for every choice in our lives. He called these moments in time when the
course of an event may be changed “choice points.”
A choice point, according to Everett, is like a bridge,
making it possible to begin one path and then change course to experience the
outcome of a new path. But these opportune moments to redefine outcomes may
come only at specific intervals where the roads of time bend their courses and approach other roads. Sometimes the roads
are so close that they touch. You can
make a choice to continue the current course to its end, or choose to take a
new course.
This was what I needed. It was the core principle of my book. There are points in our
careers and lives when we know intuitively that if we are going to change, the
time is now. It’s at this point – when we want to make
new choices that are not influenced by the past – that people find their way to
my PaperRoom.
The Many Sizes of Choices
Choices come in all sizes. They can be insignificant, like when to have lunch, or important, like whether to change careers. Some are logical and influenced by our environment, like the kind of work that’s available. Age, gender and education, as well as the expectations others have for us also color our choices or influence our need to make them. Sometimes the need to make a choice is out of our control – we’re downsized, become ill, or the organization folds. Sometimes we’re faced with choices due to our own needs – to make more money, move our career forward more rapidly, or make more time for family.
Many of us feel the need to make changes when we
embark on a new stage of life and the focus of our professional life
shifts. Young adults seek the right
place, literally and figuratively, to build their future and take their place
in the professional world. This
practical reality often takes a major role in shaping our choices. Later in
life, regardless of – or in spite of – the reality, internal needs begin to surface.
We feel the need to contribute what we’ve learned in new ways, or explore
entirely new challenges.
These choice points announce an opportunity to
choose a new path. We hear a new,
different voice recognizing that it’s time to take the next navigational turn
to embrace this next life phase.
The Progress Path of Change
How do you respond when you’re at a choice point
that takes you out of your comfort zone?
Do you try to ignore it? Face it
head-on? Act first and think
later? Or do you carefully line up your
ducks before moving an inch? However
you cope with choices, when you allow old patterns and assumptions to determine
your actions, you’ll probably get the same results that you’ve had in the past. Our unconscious behavior patterns are often
reactions to discomfort, rather than well-thought-out decisions and choices
based on who we are now. Successfully making the right choices to
live your life differently, requires truth telling and bravery, and always
feels risky. To insure that you will not put your new resolve to change at
risk, it’s important to understand the process of change.
When we first choose to change direction in some
important way, we’re generally following a message from our gut rather than our
head. We know it feels right, but we
aren’t certain that it is right.
There’s a frustrating gap between our decision to leave behind the “old” way of
doing things and knowing what will replace it.
Facing this ambiguity straight on and not backing off takes patience,
perspective, and persistence.
The Progress Path of Change[3]
begins at that moment when we commit to our new resolve. This first phase is called “uniformed
optimism.” We’re determined to go for
it. Unfortunately, our euphoria is
often fleeting. Doubts and fears about
how – or even if – we can do it predominate.
Climbing the First Hill
The first hill on the Path to Change is the steepest and most difficult. Resolutions are broken and commitment weakens. You don’t yet have any evidence of success. The climb up must be accomplished simply because you say so. Friends may try to dissuade you. You doubt the wisdom of your resolve and feel discouraged. But to be successful, you must have patience, put things into perspective, and persist.
The
Second Hill
If we don’t quit, we eventually get to the top of the first hill. It feels like the struggling is finally over, but that is what makes the next dip even more upsetting. It feels like you’re back at the start. But notice what Kelly and Conner, who first described the Progress Path, named these dips: “Uninformed Pessimism” and “Informed Pessimism.” The second dip is not at all like the first. You’re smarter. You’ve acquired a bank of new information on the way up the first hill. If you keep going with this knowledge, you’ll reach the top of the second hill and a plateau of “Informed Optimism” and “Stability.”
We’ve all been down this path of choices many times. So, make your choice and keep moving forward. Bring the discomfort with you. Trust yourself and check the evidence along the way to see that you are still headed toward your vision. Tenacity and persistence win the day.
-end-
Sydney Rice, author of Choice
Points: Navigating Your Career Using the Unique PaperRoom Process
(Davies-Black Publishing, 2003), is the founder and president of The Boston
Coaching Company, Inc. Choice Points details The PaperRoom™, her proprietary change process, in an
easy-to-follow, self-directed format that helps individuals identify their
strengths, make pragmatic choices, and create lasting change in their work,
careers and lives. With a Master’s
degree in Education and a concentration in Adult Learning and Systems Theory,
Sydney has been a professional coach,
change consultant, and trainer for individuals, business leaders and corporate
teams for more than 25 years. The mother of two grown children, Laura, who
lives in New York City and Daniel, who lives in India, Sydney resides in an
18th century farmhouse in West Newbury, Massachusetts with her husband, Vincent
Harrild. A specially trained, licensed team of senior coaching professionals
works with clients throughout the country using the PaperRoom process. For more information, visit
www.bostoncoachingco.com.