Two Kinds of Change

Not all change is created equal.
Some change is earned. Some change erupts.

Disruptive Change

This is the lightning bolt — the crash, the collapse, the clarity that wasn’t there before.
It arrives uninvited:

• A crisis you never saw coming

• A child’s question that stops you in your tracks

• The doctor’s voice saying, “We need to talk”

• A poem you didn’t expect to cry over

• A dream so vivid it wakes you changed

It’s the kind of learning you can’t chase.
Like trying to bloom a flower by shouting at it.
The harder you grip, the farther it slips.

A student asked the Zen master, “How long to reach enlightenment?”
“Ten years,” the master replied.
“What if I double my effort?”
“Then twenty years.”

Disruptive change happens to us — like fire to a forest.
It clears, it scorches, it awakens.

Developmental Change

This is the quieter path — effort stacked on effort.
No fanfare. Just:

• Learning to forgive the same person again

• Waking up early when no one cheers for you

• Writing one more line

• Lacing your shoes when your body says stay in bed

It’s less like lightning, more like erosion — slow, steady, shaping stone.
You can choose this kind of change.
You must choose it again and again.

If disruptive change is the revelation that the mountain exists,
developmental change is the hike — one foot in front of the other.

We confuse them often.
We wait for epiphanies to build endurance.
We hope for a spark to give us discipline.
But:

• You can wake up in an instant

• You can’t grow up overnight

What We Can Will — and What We Can’t

Both kinds of change are vital.
One clears the path.
The other teaches us how to walk it.

Don’t wait for lightning.
Sharpen your tools.
Build the life that will be ready when the spark comes.