Feed Your Curiosity: Master of Change by Brad Stulberg

The first thing that disappeared when burnout made its presence known earlier this year: reading substantive books. Instead, I was reading popcorn crime thrillers by James Patterson. Nothing wrong with that, but the joy of reading to learn was gone.

Rewind to last month. My wife and I were at the library and I noticed Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything is Changing—Including You by Brad Stulberg in the New Releases section. There was something about the book that called out to me. We were headed out of town, so I decided to take the book on the trip.

"A central narrative in our culture urges us to seek stability, yet this doesn't reflect the reality that change is constant—and that, with the right skills, it can be a dramatic force for growth."

– Brad Stulberg

As I've been sharing, there's been a tremendous amount of change in my life this year. I wasn't really sure how to think about it, so I simply attempted to ignore it. I shoved down emotions, allowed depression to run my life, and tried to maintain the status quo until everything crumbled to pieces.

"Learning an entirely new way to conceive of and work with change—what I've come to call 'rugged flexibility'—minimizes distress, restlessness, and angst while promoting deep happiness and lasting fulfillment."

- Brad Stulberg

I always viewed change in my life as something Stulberg describes as homeostasis: Normal existence (order), until something occurs which disrupts everything (disorder), eventually returning to normal as things were originally (order).

That's what I've been trying to do, just like I did after every previous versions of disorder: Put my life back together as it used to be. Often resulting in bitterness and frustration.

What if there was another way?

Stulberg blows my mind presenting change through the lens of allostasis: Normal existence (order), something disrupts everything (disorder), a new form of stability occurs (reorder). Remember the phrase, "new normal"? Yep, that was another way of saying reorder.

What if I opened myself up to the possibility of reorder? What would that look like in my current phase of life and work? How can I let go of what was and embrace what is?

Now these are questions worthy of reflection!

"Everything is changing always, including us. We are constantly somewhere in the cycle of order, discover, reorder. Our stability results from our being able to navigate this cycle, or as Sterling and Eyer put it, 'We achieve stability through change.'"

– Brad Stulberg

To give you an insight into the depth of this book, the quotes I shared above were in the Introduction. Throughout, Stulberg combines research with stories from a wide-range of topics including professional athletes, scientists, and leaders.

I haven't had a chance to finish the book, but it is providing daily opportunities to think about change in new ways, learn how to be more flexible while holding onto what matters, and find the joy of reading once again.

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Newsletter Notes:

• Today's sonic soundtrack is Devin Townsend's latest album, PowerNerd. It just came out today! He continues to inspire me with his work as he explores new ideas and sounds, expanding what it means to produce music in the later years of his career.

• Midjourney generated the image above with the following prompt: ‌change is constant, surreal, abstract, monochromatic, in the style of escher --ar 16:9

• I set the "Feed Your Curiosity" type in Boris Bold, a delicious font by Deadbolt Design.