The upward spiral

Ultimately, change agents seek to bring about profound transformation within themselves, others, human systems, and humanity itself. We seek to catalyze the emergence of new, more conscious ways of being, thinking, and doing. We yearn to see humanity mature into a wiser version of itself. This is the change we seek.

And yet, in practice, our opportunity as individual change agents—or even as an organization or movement of change agents—is much more modest. We can only ever play a small role in this vast, mysterious, ancient process of emergence. In fact, it may be more helpful to think of change in practice simply as growth.

Profound social transformation typically takes place over generations. Self-transformation happens over years, if not decades. But growth toward those ends can happen today, perhaps even in a single moment.

Imagine a thriving, beautiful old-growth forest teeming with life and abundance. Before the forest even existed, there might have been a grassy meadow. Eventually, sprouts emerged from the ground. Then they transformed into saplings and then trees. Then different layers of the forest would emerge: the forest floor, the shrub layer, the understory, the canopy, and the emergent layer. With each new story of the forest, new life would find its way to the forest and make its home there. A profound transformation of life would take place over the span of decades. But in practice, that would simply be the cumulative effect of near-infinite little moments of growth, often too slow and subtle to notice.

In practice every day, change agents foster growth. They grow themselves, their communities, their organizations, and even humanity as a whole bit by bit. Their work is often slow, subtle, and at times imperceptible to those around them. But eventually, it leaves them—and the world around them—transformed.

Through their work, change agents catalyze the ancient process of life and consciousness emerging, deepening, diversifying, and complexifying. Through their work, they demonstrate that time is not a flat circle. Rather, it is an upward spiral—ever reaching new heights, yet looping back on itself again and again.