What Do You NOT Want To Change?

I posted the quote below on my Facebook Ryan Nagy Feldenkrais page" and I thought you might want to take a look. It is from one of my favorite books called "The Logic of Failure" which has some great non-intuitive insights about change

"....advocates of progress often have too low an opinion of what already exists. When we set out to change things, in other words, we don't pay enough attention to what we want to leave unchanged." Dietrich Dorner. The Logic Of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations

My question to you (feel free to answer in a comment below). What do you NOT want to change in your practice? What do you NOT want to change in the Feldenkrais community? What do you not want to change about yourself or life?

cheers!

16 Comments

  1. I don’t want to change my strongly eclectic tendency to keep seeking out new methods of somatic and psychic exploration. I don’t want to replace my status of “work in progress” with that of “master” for as long as the Richard Coldman identity persists bodily. I don’t want to change the possibility of undergoing radical transformations and replacements of belief from one week to the next. I don’t want to change my commitment to distinguishing between my beliefs and my knowledge, or to fall into the trap of assuming beyond doubt that mine are the true beliefs Apart from that, things can stay as they are … for now.

  2. Maturana was strong on conservation, claiming that evolution was not a matter of changing, but of adapting around some principle to be conserved. So a biologist from Chile agrees with Dorner.
    Lovely to be reminded, thanks.

  3. I don’t want to change my drive to experience new and unfamiliar paths. Even if failiaure and instability follow. I don’t want to change my curiosity to learn.

  4. Wonderful queries at the beginning of a New Year. Nice to remember that there is probably a “baby” in that there “bathwater” that might actually be worth saving.

  5. Thanks Mary Beth. Good to see your comment. I think you are talking about the Guild, but I do not know. If so, that is not where I was going with my “want to preserve” but if there are aspects of that system you want to preserve or not change, that is great.

    I will add my “two cents” a bit later. I am leaving on Vacation tomorrow.

    cheers!

    Ryan

  6. Amen! I had a hard time getting out of my comfort zone recently to plan a trip…very strange for me to get stuck in that manner. But I did keep on trucking! Happy trails and new paths…

    Ryan

  7. Thanks Richard…I went into trance considering those ideas. When I come out, I may have something more to say! A pleasure, as always….

  8. Interesting considering it this way. I can see that apart from the other things mentioned above, I don’t want to change the fact that I have a lot of time for growing, for exploring, and for music. And that I feel free, don’t depend on somebody else.
    I probably have this unconscious belief that if my practice expands I won’t have time for all that.

  9. “Find a bright spot and clone it.

    That’s the first step to fixing everything from addiction to corporate malaise to malnutrition. A problem may look hopelessly complex. But there’s a game plan that can yield movement on even the toughest issues. And it starts with locating a bright spot — a ray of hope.

    Our focus, in times of change, goes instinctively to the problems at hand. What’s broken and how do we fix it? This troubleshooting mind-set serves us well — most of the time. If you run a nuclear power plant and your diagnostics turn up a disturbing signal once per month, you should most certainly obsess about it and fix the problem. And if your child brings home a report card with five As and one F, it makes sense to freak out about the F.

    But in times of change, this mind-set will backfire. If we need to make major changes, then (by definition) we don’t have a near-spotless report card. A lot of things are probably wrong. The “report card” for our diet, or our marriage, or our business, is full of Cs and Ds and Fs. So if you ask yourself, What’s broken and how do I fix it?, you’ll simply spin your wheels. You’ll spend a lot of time agonizing over issues that are TBU.

    When it’s time to change, we must look for bright spots — the first signs that things are working, the first precious As and Bs on our report card. We need to ask ourselves a question that sounds simple but is, in fact, deeply unnatural: What’s working and how can we do more of it?”

    -Dan Heath http://www.fastcompany.com/1514493/switch-dont-solve-problems-copy-success

    http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/articles/pages/danheath.aspx

    this kind of thinking is congruent in what we embody and practice in the FM, not trying to fix problems , but build, support accentuate and differentiate what does work for the person…applied systems thinking really.

  10. Kick ass Dwight, thanks. Perhaps I should pick out several practitioners who are doing fantastic, interview them and see what they do well that others can use… ??? I think that has potential.

    Ryan

  11. Ichi – I am sitting in the Austin Airport waiting for my connection to Las Vegas and laughing my ass off. Message recieved! Thanks.

    Ryan

  12. That is an interesting one for me Catherine. “Maintaining my independence” was the first thing that popped into my mind. And the crazy exploration of myself and the world that happened after starting to do Feldenkrais. I want to keep that. Though sometimes, I wonder if I need to slow down on some fronts and stay focused on fewer things. I do not know. Just thinking out loud.

    Thanks for joining the conversation!

    Ryan

  13. some gems in here re: developing a culture of excellence, many parallels for the Feldenkrais community.

    “Rachel’s narrative neatly captures the three steps we reviewed in our two articles, which research has shown are necessary to achieve excellence. First, know your baseline. Rachel is able to accurately assess what she does, mindful of what she’s capable of. Second, engage in deliberate practice—a systematic and critical review during which time problematic aspects of a performance are isolated and rehearsed or, failing that, alternatives are considered, implemented, and evaluated. Third, obtain formal, ongoing feedback.
    To date, more than a dozen randomized clinical trials, involving thousands of clients and numerous therapists, have established that excellence isn’t reserved for a select few. Far from it: it’s within the reach of all. These studies show that applying the steps—know your baseline, engage in deliberate practice, and obtain ongoing feedback—increases the effectiveness of individual practitioners threefold, cuts dropout rates by 50 percent, reduces the rate of deterioration by 33 percent, and speeds recovery by 66 percent, while improving client satisfaction and reducing the cost of care.”

    “The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?” – Confucius

    The Road to Mastery
    What’s missing from this picture?
    By Scott Miller and Mark Hubble

    http://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/recentissues/1298-the-road-to-mastery

  14. Thanks Dwight. That is a classic. Highly-relevant to Feldenkrais. Scott has presented at several of my online psych conferences. I will look into posting one of his presentations.

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