How to get better at noticing change

Our ability to notice change is usually at quite a course level. We certainly notice if something major goes wrong at work, for example if our new product crashes and burns, if our project timelines get delayed, if we are told that our job is no longer required.

These big changes hit us hard in the face.

But actually they were made up of an infinite number of subtle, small, changes before they got to “the big one”. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to notice these smaller changes earlier?

 Then we could make appropriate modifications to our new product before launch, we could have started to onboard more project team members to help meet deadlines, we could have up-skilled ourselves in a new area to make a role transition smoother.

 If we intentionally practice noticing change at a finer level then these changes won’t hit us so hard, and we might actually be able to mitigate some of them.

Change is constant and therefore impermanence is our reality. 

We know this rationally but we don’t allow ourselves to experience it very often, in fact our minds work pretty hard smoothing out our daily experiences so that as many things as possible seem unchanging.

Choosing to refine our ability to notice change means working against the natural tendency of the brain, and to actively practice noticing constant change.

 Take for example our jobs, we may have had the same job for a few years, but really is it the same job? Doesn’t it pretty much change on some level, in some way, every single day?

 If we can fine tune our awareness of change then we can be much better at seeing small changes and being able to take action at an earlier stage, but we need to intentionally practice it.

 The good news is that we can do this, here a few ways to raise your level of awareness:

 1.    Make it daily habit to notice what’s changed outside (the weather, the leaves on the trees etc.). 

 2.    Practice mindfulness: noticing the subtle differences between each in breath, out breath and gap between the breaths. Notice the changing nature of your thoughts.

 3.    Take one action you do repetitively every day (like brushing your teeth, driving to work) and make a daily habit to consider all the ways it changes from one day to the next, challenge yourself to come up with as many ways as possible.

 If you practice these activities regularly, daily, then your will start to notice your awareness raised in other areas too, and you will be more likely to subtle change where, and when, it matters.