A phenomenon of personal transformation, and one not often highlighted, is the time lag between one’s personal evolution and acknowledgement from “the universe.” Universe might be a stretch, but lets say your personal world of experience.
You commit to that new thing that promises happiness, freedom, ease, etc. and along the way you start to feel changes within. There’s only one problem, everyone else sees you as the same person that started your journey, and your world fails to reflect the changes you feel.
This can be wholly demoralizing, and it leads to many transformation process derailments.
And then what follows is a regression to the mean - those habits and attitudes that, for better or worse, kept things in balance for years - and a conclusion that solution X "just isn’t for me."
But there are natural laws at play, if we can call them that. And one of them is a lag in time between effort and lasting change - the promise of payoff granted by your world. The simplest way to put it is one must be different for long enough for the world to change around them, to reorient around the version of you that intends to remain.
But in the meantime, doubt, insecurity, discomfort, fear, reign. “What if it’s not enough? What if I'm not doing the right stuff? What if nothing changes, even when I do? Is this all for not?”
In the cocoon of transformation the worm becomes a butterfly. But to those outside, watching, all they can see is a static container with slight fidgets and jiggles. Nothing impressive going on. This isn’t because no changes are taking place, it’s because onlookers cannot see beyond the cocoon - the perceptions and judgments of character, and the potential of the creature in process, until…
…Until a butterfly emerges and deep transformation is utterly undeniable.
For then, not only is that creature no longer crawling, it’s flying. The habits, community, and potentials that defined it are likely no longer suitable for whatever this thing is that has emerged. And it’ll require time for those environmental forces to adjust. Some will need to be upgraded, some will need to be cut loose, until the world mirrors the changes that are now visible to all.
But prior to this emergence, the cocoon must be protected.
It’s a fragile state of transformation marked by isolation, discomfort, and identity shedding.
It requires a supportive, sympathetic environment. It requires a community that doesn’t define what’s inside as a worm, and refuses to see anything else. And it requires time - change takes time.
When you’re in the throws of change, don’t merely focus on becoming, but protect the cocoon. There's a reason worms don't become butterflies in the open, for all to see. When the time is right, there will be no doubt that a brilliant, limitless creature has emerged.
Be Weightless,
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