Have you ever tried to make a big change in your personal life or career and found yourself going around in circles? You start out in a direction you think you want to go, take a few tentative steps in that direction, and then notice that the path in front of you is getting murky? Things you try to do begin to feel "harder" and you lose energy. You start thinking, "What happened to my creativity? What happened to my energy and commitment? Am I just getting lazy?" Nine times out of ten you find yourself retreating to the safety of the "known" - you are powerfully drawn back into your "old world." You know that staying put will ultimately leave you feeling unfulfilled and frustrated with yourself - but it is so "EASY!"

What happened? You stepped to the fringes of chaos - took one look and retreated. In order to take yourself or your career to the next level you need to be able to move through chaos. And even more than that - you need to be able to confidently invoke, manage, and creatively utilize chaos. Here are some thoughts about how to harness the power of creative chaos.

Why is chaos a critical part of the change process?

Pablo Picasso said that, "Every act of creation is first an act of destruction" and he was right. To create a new you, or a new situation, or a new career, or a new environment, involves letting go of old thought patterns, behaviors, structures, and people - all of those comfortable but constraining supports that keep you tied into your current life. But as these support structures are abandoned or dismantled, you are set adrift. You feel your ties to reality and to safety loosening and confusion closing in. You find yourself floating in a sea of chaos - the very definition of chaos being "any great confusion or disorder." An even older definition of chaos is "an abyss or chasm" - and sometimes that is exactly what you feel you are headed towards.

While you are adrift in the sea of chaos the future seems unclear and may appear as a dark grey or black void. You catch glimpses of amorphous options which entice you with whispered promises of a better, happier, more fulfilled life, but you can't seem to get your arms around anything. Making sense of the swirling mass of half-formed possibilities seems impossible and you feel yourself being sucked into the disorder, bewilderment, and even embarrassment over your predicament. So back to shore you paddle, half-heartedly trying to reconnect to the attachments and anchor points you left behind. And each time you venture out into the sea of chaos, you become more frustrated, and each time your come back to the shore of your "old world" the reattachment points you try to reconstruct are built more hastily and halfheartedly and become shakier. Each time you go through the "venturing out and retreating" cycle, you feel more lost. Eventually you are able to recognize the repeating cycle: constrained and frustrated in the present, setting forth to make a change, floating around in a dangerous and confusing sea of chaos, and returning weary and unsatisfied back to the old shore. You wish there was a way to move though the chaos to find the other shore. It is possible, but you must first develop an understanding of the sea that stands between you and your new reality. You must first come to understand the two sides of chaos (positive and negative) and learn how to use chaos in a creative manner.

Positive and Negative Chaos

There are two sides to chaos - one of which is positive and can be used to support the change you wish to make, the other of which is negative and can hinder your progress.

Positive Chaos

Positive chaos requires three things:

1. Getting clear on what you know

No doubt you know a lot about yourself already. The problem is that most of us never critically examine what we know about ourselves to sort out the old outdated assumptions and baggage we have been carrying around from our childhood, our upbringing, and our experiences. To initiate positive chaos your assumptions must be brought to the surface and objectively examined with a view to identifying and resolving inconsistencies, getting to the heart of what is true, and getting that truth in front of your face where it is receiving your active attention.

When brought to light and examined most peoples beliefs about who they are and what they want are highly inconsistent. For example, the person who believes both of the following: "I want to create a solid personal foundation from which I can build a new life because I am tired of flying by the seat of my pants" and, "I don't like committing to people or situations." Such inconsistencies add a layer of confusion to the necessary chaos of the change process and need to be eliminated. Often a good way to identify and resolve inconsistencies and to get to the core of who you are is to enlist the help and support of an objective person with an unbiased perspective and no personal attachment to the final outcome of your change process to serve as your guide or coach through the process.

2. Getting fresh input

Once you have the core elements of who you are and what you like and how you work best actively floating around in your mind - you are ready for the next step. You need to add some fresh ideas into the mix. You need to brainstorm and expand the range of possible options. You need to explore new concepts and possibilities without simultaneously trying to address the pros and cons of each. The idea is to purposely create more complexity - to stimulate all of your senses - as you envision the sights, sounds, smells and feelings associated with new possibilities. Don't sensor - just expand. Here, again, a brainstorming partner can be invaluable.

3. Creating a new framework which is large enough to encompass and unify what is true for the new you

The good news is that our human minds hate ambiguity. When faced with uncertainty they will struggle to establish order. So when you have brought to the attention of your mind clear thoughts about who you are and what is important to you, and when you have fearlessly added to the "confusion" by throwing new ideas and possibilities into the mix, your mind will attempt to find a framework that is broad enough to encompass and reconcile everything. During this process you may feel uncomfortable as your mind stretches and expands to find the right structure - and that's perfectly normal. Allow your mind to drift "upward" in perspective - gain altitude as you look down on all of the pieces laid out before you and see if you can develop a new perspective that brings everything into clear focus.

These three steps constitute the cycle of positive chaos: (1) Get clear on what you already know, (2) add new ideas and concepts, and then (3) allow your brain to create the larger framework that makes sense of it all.

Negative chaos

The cycle of positive chaos requires that you stay calm as you continue to throw new thoughts and ideas into the mix. Creating and allowing the swirl and confusion, and accepting the feelings of uneasiness, is all part of the process of engaging in the first two steps (the expanding phases). But there are also negative elements that can unwittingly seep in during these first two phases that can derail the final step (the reframing process). Here are things to watch out for that can contribute to negative chaos:

• Asking for too much input from two many different people who all have their own agendas
• Trying to move into step 2 (brainstorm new ideas) before you have completed step 1 (get clear on what you know) and resolved some key underlying inconsistencies.
• Allowing yourself to be distracted by too many outside influences during step 3. Moving through the change process requires you to keep your attention focused on the tasks at hand.
• Abandoning healthy habits or indulging unhealthy habits. The change process does require time and attention and mental energy. It is common during this process to find yourself abandoning healthy and pleasurable activities (especially physical activities such as exercising or working out) as you focus on "thinking." But maintaining a balance of the physical and mental aspects of your life will actually free your mind up to think more clearly. It is also important to recognize and stop yourself when you notice you are engaging in familiar stress-reaction habits (e.g., overeating, isolating yourself from others) triggered by the "uneasiness" that often accompanies floating around in the sea of positive chaos.
• Being around people who are highly invested in the person you used to be. Your interactions with them will tend to keep you anchored in old patterns and old assumptions. Better to seek out the company of those who can share your new vision, or who are able to relate to you as the person you are envisioning or becoming.

The secret to leveraging the constructive nature of chaos is to recognize the following:

1. Chaos is a key element of the creative process

2. You can proactively create positive chaos and avoid negative chaos

3. You can rely on the natural "pattern seeking" and "order seeking" tendencies of your brain to help you create an expanded framework for your new reality.

What is your point of view? Please post your thoughts on the discussion board.

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