Focus Confidence Momentum

It is smart to recognize which bits of change are evolutionary and which are revolutionary and act accordingly.

Tune your change. Evolutionary change ought to be gradual and steady. Revolutionary change ought to be absolute. Either done wrong dilutes the value of the change and may be stressful.

Here are some examples:

1. Choosing to exercise is both revolutionary and evolutionary. When you start, going from no exercise to some exercise, that’s a revolution. You need to do something radical to jump start the process, like hiring a personal trainer and paying them in advance. As you start to exercise you evolve in the way you exercise, going from easy, to moderate and so on. Typically, if you start exercising too vigorously, you’ll burn out quickly and be back to your old ways. Revolution doesn’t work when evolution is needed.
2. The way you manage your time is the result of a number of habits and personal policies. To change the way you deal with time you’ll have some evolutions and some revolutions. The evolutions will include the way you handle people, meetings and interruptions. You can’t have a revolution when other people are involved. The revolutions might be in the way handle technology; voice mail, email and your computer. For example an excellent way for many people to manage time is to manage interruptions differently.
3. Certain relationships need evolutionary change and others need revolutionary change. Typically relationships you want to grow will do best with evolutionary change. Typically the relationships you want to reduce will require a revolutionary adjustment. That is you’ll be cutting something out.
4. If you are coaching someone this is an important concept to use to bring the right intensity to the right activity. For example, say you are working with someone whose three year vision is quite different from where they are now. As you create a plan together you need to articulate which revolutionary changes need to be implemented and which evolutionary changes need to be seeded and cultivated.