Can People Really Transform?

How many classes have you taken, or books have you read for the purpose of getting better at something? How much time,energy,and money have you invested in improving certain specific skills or qualities (i.e.,time management courses,assertiveness trainings,skiing lessons, management technique seminars, weight control,piano or ballet lessons, financial planning lectures)? What long-term results came out of those courses or books? What did your investment actually yield? Are you consistently applying what you learned in your daily practices?

The point in asking these questions is not to debunk these kinds of learning. There is definitely a place in our lives for skill-specific, informational, or technical education. In fact, one of the most critical steps to becoming an expert at almost anything, whether it be skiing or management, is to be coached in the specific skills and attitudes of mastery in that particular field. Then, you must surrender or put aside what you think you already know and be open to this coaching. Being coached means subordinating yourself to the experts such that they are able to intervene in, correct,and help you refine your practices so that you become more effective. By “subordinating yourself” I mean submitting to the guidance of another, following their instructions even if you don't understand the reason or if they seem illogical to you barring anything illegal or immoral. Look at all the programs you have taken with the intention of becoming better at something. Did those courses fulfill their promise? Did the effect last? Predictably, you probably did not integrate the new information into your practice in a way that made a lasting difference.

In Lifespring courses improved effectiveness is not the direct purpose but a by-product of a broader transformation in your personal commitment to having your life and the world work. Actual results and measurable progress in specific projects are important. In fact, the very reason Lifespring is so successful is that graduates do experience significant, tangible improvement in specific areas of their lives-and their return on investment increases over time. Transformational training has the added benefit of potentially affecting all areas of your life; the practices of breakthrough are not limited to one specific skill or ability.

THE FIXED SELF

Perhaps you're thinking:“Of course, who wouldn't want transformation and breakthrough? But come on, people are who they are. Some things just don't change. How can you suggest that people can fundamentally ‘transform’ even if they wanted to?” If so, your skepticism illuminates an historical philosophical dilemma. Is there something fixed, concrete, and unchangeable about human beings, or is it actually possible for individuals to make essential shifts in their way of being?

Logically,transformation is only possible if you have an understanding of human beings that is consistent with transformation. The understanding that prevails in our society today is the view that self is basically “fixed”; that our identities are comprised of static qualities and characteristics over which we have little control, but that play a leading role in how our lives turn out. We act like we were just born shy,outgoing,interesting, boring,whimsical,serious,ambitious, lazy, committed,flaky; that's the way we are and the way we will always be. That understanding does not leave much of an opening for the possibility of transformation. Those characterizations can be roadblocks to breakthrough in that they preclude any possibilities that are not consonant with them. While degrees of improvement are certainly possible, at the bottom of this view is a mood of resignation to the inevitable which undermines any hope of unpredictable breakthrough.

What basis is there for the claim that such characteristics are, in fact,fixed? When a surgeon opens up a patient for an operation,does he or she find shyness or laziness or funniness inside the patient's body? Of course not. Those characterizations are 100 percent interpretation. We can usually point to evidence that will support our characterizations of ourselves and others. However, none of that evidence can objectively stand on its own as proof of a fixed self; all of it depends upon our interpretation. And what can be interpreted can be reinterpreted.

There are some things about yourself that you cannot change; for instance, your history. At birth, you are thrown into a set of circumstances and conditions about which you had no say,and which,to a tremendous degree, determine who you will be as you grow up. You have no choice in the matter. Much of your life is chosen by the circumstances and conditions of your personal and cultural history. Those circumstances and conditions, which include language, religion, nationality,ethnicity,gendey,chronology,parents,and socioeconomic conditions, represent the skeleton of your structure of interpretation which you then flesh out with your own experiences throughout life. Given the particular skeleton you were “thrown” to, you are somewhat limited in terms of the possible musculature that you can develop.

You can only interpret yourself given the state of affairs you were thrown into at birth. You cannot change the facts. But you can shift the significance of the facts in how you interpret them. The facts of your history,culture,race,religion,gender,economy,and so on, determine the possible interpretations available to you. How you integrate those facts into your identity, whether they limit or empower you, is within your control. To give you an example, maleness and femaleness are objective facts. But masculinity and femininity are cultural interpretations. In the United States of the 1950s tenderness and sensitivity were generally rejected as masculine traits. In the 1980s, however, they are accepted and even welcome qualities in “real men.” And the American evaluations of masculinity may not match those of the Burmese during the same period. And, by the year 2000, American opinion about masculinity may radically change once again. The same can be said of feminine qualities. Thus, our interpretations are rooted in our specific, already existing environment.

Your already given interpretations provide the canvas upon which you paint your picture of the world. Each stroke you make, each color choice,each pattern, becomes part of your overall identity,and forms the basis for subsequent actions and decisions. Given the palette and brushes assigned to you at birth, you proceed to clarify and manifest your values and your commitments throughout your life.

Our morals and values are intimately connected with our personal interpretations. Your self-interpretations influence your value system, the system by which you distinguish between what is important and what is not, what is right or wrong, good or bad. They also influence your experience of the events in your life. For instance, the same mistake made by a Westerner may be experienced in a dramatically different way than if made by a Japanese. For the Westerner, it may be an embarrassment, whereas the Japanese may “lose face” completely. Based on different structures of interpretations, the same event could be experienced as survivable humiliation for a Westerner, and as an unpardonable loss of honor for the Japanese.

While you cannot change the facts of your history, you can shift your interpretation of those facts. It is as much a part of being human to be a product of your personal and cultural history as it is to be a product of your interpretation of your personal and cultural history.

ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE SELF

If you believe that human beings are fixed, concrete, self-actualizing entities, then transformation is a theoretical contradiction. If you are immutable at your core, you cannot transform.If you hold human beings,rather,as collections of relationships,actions,interpretations, and concerns, then transformation is possible. Which theory is accurate is one of those questions that will probably never be answered definitively. There is no “Truth” and debating that issue will not further the work at hand. Lifespring's technology is designed on the philosophical premise that human beings are not fixed, atomic, objective, quantifiable beings. Rather,as the existential philosophers (including Soren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Maurice MerleauPonty, and Friedrich Nietzsche) have suggested, human beings are defined by self-interpretations that are determined primarily by the conditions of a specific time and place in history. There is voluminous work in philosophy and the social sciences that credibly challenges the fixed self view of human being. While it is a fascinating inquiry, it is not the purpose of our work together, and so I will close with the question: Are you certain that you are a fixed, concrete, atomic self with fixed, inevitable traits? If so, are you certain enough to forfeit the possibilities available in exploring a nonfixed interpretation of the self? Consider this alternative philosophical interpretation of the self.

There are no fixed, concrete components in us; human beings are interpretations all the way down. If you take away interpretation,you are merely left with a pile of flesh and bones.What makes us “who we are" as distinct from other things, including other living things, is our self-interpreting nature. Our reality consists of our interpretations-if you will, how we digest, process, and integrate our perceptions,and the significance we assign to what happens in our lives. Unlike things, which have some objective qualities that cannot be altered without changing the very nature of the things themselves, fundamental shifts can and do occur in human beings that yet embrace and preserve the consistency of their being.

Let's explore the roots of the proposition that the self is a product of interpretation.

In our culture, people's images and self-characterizations are predominately seen as rigidly fixed qualities. In other words, people think certain ways of being are "just the way they are.” But is this a fact? In order to say that “I am shy,”“I am passive,” or “I am aggressive,” logic would have it that there must be something concrete within you that has those characteristics. If this is true, then where is it? In your soul? Your mind? Your personality? Your body? Could we cut you open and see it? Further, it requires that you have the ability to evaluate yourself objectively. But how can you be sure that you have separated the objective facts about yourself from your feelings, prejudices, opinions, preferences,and biases? You cannot separate “factual”reality from your interpretation of it. The “fixed self” theory is just an assertion; the one that happens to be the prevalent point of view in our culture, but not one that has a factual basis.

If the idea of a concrete self within us isn’t “the Truth,” then why is it the cultural point of view, and why do we all accept it so automatically? If our characterizations are merely products of our interpretations, why do we cling to them so strongly even when they don't work? What is the significance to us if this fixed view of human nature is not correct, but merely an interpretation?

Indeed, there is a tremendous store of evidence to support the fixed self concept.First, and most obviously, there is your body.Sure, your body changes throughout your life, and you have some control over your shape,size,and appearance.But basically,you don't get much of a vote about your body. You're stuck with the physical features you have thanks to your genes. The body you do have absolutely limits your possibilities-if you are born male, you don't have a choice about bearing children. But your physical features are just that: your physical features. The only effect they have on your experience of life is that they color how you see the world, your interpretation of what it is to be human. For instance, your physical body determines whether you interpret from the stance of a male or female, tall person or short person,and so on. Second, our language reinforces the fixed self concept and supports us to interpret ourselves as fixed. In our communication with each other, we make distinctions like“I,”“you,”and“it.” Who said those distinctions are correct? Could "I” exist without “you?” They are not separate phenomena, but we live within language that creates a separation. If there is a distinct “I,” then it must have distinct characteristics.We do each have distinct characteristics, but our language does not discern between those that are fixed-like height, eye color, and gender-and those that are merely interpretation-like shyness,assertiveness,beauty,and intelligence.We think our language was invented to describe or represent reality, but language and reality are intertwined-language not only shapes our interpretation of reality, but shapes how reality itself unfolds. Our language is so central to who we are and how we think that it is difficult to even imagine an interpretation that doesn't fit the structure of language. Third, as mentioned before, the history into which we are thrown at birth is a fixed framework of unchangeable facts. It cannot be “transformed.”So, part of the human condition is, by nature, uncontrollable and predetermined.What we can do, though, is transform how we deal with what can't change. At an essential level, the self is constructed by a tapestry of interpretations. Anything about us that is fixed is indivisible from our interpretation of it and our interrelations with the rest of the world.

Which point of view provides more of an opening for transformation?My claim should be obvious by now.It may surprise you to know that Lifespring's philosophy has changed over the last two decades. In the Basic Training, we used to talk about the “diamond within" each of us,a metaphor that alluded to a perfect,natural self within. We encouraged people to strip away the beliefs,memories, and hurts that were blocking the natural expression of their “real” inner selves. Over the last several years, out of our commitment to question and entertain new possibilities, as an organization we have shifted. We questioned our philosophical foundation and discovered that it wasn't solid,nor was it the most empowering way to work with people. We were asking people to express their “true selves,” as though we knew what a true self was, as though it were a tangible organ like your heart or lungs. Out of our continual inquiry we have come to hold human beings as possibilities, limited only by our interpretations of them,and by the history, language,and commitments in which we live. This current understanding of human nature may not be the truth, the light,and the way, but it stands up to rigorous analysis, and more effectively opens you up to taking action to discover new possibilities for your future.

You may ask, if there is nothing fixed and definite about human beings, then how do we get our identities; what determines our personalities; what causes each of us to have unique style,tastes,and preferences; what makes us who we are? Great questions!

SELF-INTERPRETATION

What makes us who we are, what determines our every word and action, is our interpretation of ourselves and the world in relationship to ourselves. This is a tough idea to articulate. For the sake of illustration, here is a simple example:

1. Something happens; for instance, you get invited to a high-level business conference.
2. You have some thoughts and feelings about that; for instance, you feel proud or you are surprised that you were included.
3. You interpret your thoughts and feelings,either consciously or unconsciously; for instance, 'I am good at what I do,' or 'I'm not really as good as they must think I am.'
4. That interpretation becomes part of the road map of your identity; for instance, you are successful,or, you are a fraud.

Here's another example:

1. Something happens; for example,as a kid,you fall down right in the middle of the classroom and the other kids laugh.
2. You have some thoughts and feelings about that; for instance, you are embarrassed,you start crying, you are mad at yourself, you feel like an idiot, you fear that your friends won't like you anymore.
3. You interpret your thoughts and feelings,either consciously or unconsciously; for instance, 'l have to look good all the time if l want people to like me.' 'If I don't have everything under control, I'll humiliate myself.'
4. That interpretation becomes part of the road map of your identity; for instance, your priorities become looking good, being in control, and never letting others see you unguarded.

Such interpretations as “I am successful,” or “I have to be in control" are thus invented by you, but you don't have much of a choice about them. You respond to events in specific ways because of your history and physical reality.

Consider here the possibility that,since your identity has emerged out of your interpretations, you may be able to reinvent yourself. Use the following suggestions to direct your inquiry.

• Think back through your past. ldentify some significant events that helped shape the road map of your identity. What happened? What thoughts and feelings did you have? How did you interpret those thoughts and feelings? In what ways are you still acting out of those interpretations?
• What difference would being able to reinterpret yourself make in your life?

For those of you who are skeptics, I can hear your wheels turning now. You are thinking: “Okay, so I am nothing but a bunch of interpretations. Then what generates those interpretations? Who's behind the wizard's curtain? Are you saying that there are no objective facts?

Do you mean that if I accept this point of view, I am free to pick a new identity off the interpretation rack at the grocery store? And what about these unlimited possibilities? So I can blink my eyes and create the identity of neurosurgeon when I have been a diesel mechanic all my life?" No, controlling your interpretations is not wizardry, and you cannot just wave your magic wand and pick the interpretation,“I am a black woman,"if what you are is a white man. There are boundaries that limit the possibile interpretations to which you have access.

Within the limitations of aspects of our physical existence and our history,however,you have the power to redeclare the context of your interpretations. Hence, life is a dance of continual invention. Conversely, in the fixed self model you are merely playing out a course that is governed by allegedly fixed qualities you were allotted at birth. Compare the freedom of designing yourself out of the background of your history and your physical constraints to the inevitability of a life predetermined by your history and physical constraints.

In the fixed self understanding, your interpretations are perceived as facts-like verdicts. If you hold that people are who and what you interpret them to be, however, then you are likely to approach yourself and others as possibilities, and you are likely to find openings rather than closures. You are more likely to look for unexpected genius from yourself and others rather than to plug people into fixed and limiting categories.

This interpretation of human beings-that we are what we interpret, and that there is nothing intrinsically fixed about us other than that we are temporal beings-is a suggestion, an hypothesis. Think of this view, not as the enlightened truth about life, but as an effective way by which to enter into communication with the world.

Answer the following questions in your journal to begin the exploration of yourself as interpretation:

• What fixed qualities have you ascribed to yourself?
• How does that characterization dictate your actions? How do your actions,in turn, validate your characterization?
• Think of two or three people close to you. What fixed qualities have you ascribed to them?
• How do your characterizations of people around you limit what could be possible?
• Consider that you can change your interpretations, without any evidence, just because you say so. Write down your thoughts.