Chime for a Change
How to change your behavior, attain enlightment, transform your relationships, nurture your family, empower your friends, motivate your workplace and effect world peace using a digital watch.
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Here is a powerful tool so simple you'll wonder that it's not already a part of your life. This idea is so simple that any individual old enough to tell time or any group, from a circle of friends to a large corporation or political organization can use it as a fulcrum with which to leverage self-prescribed change. We all know that repetition is a key to learning and retaining new behavior. We learn the alphabet by rote. We train our dogs and attempt to train our children by repeating the same commands over and over again. New skills ... in sports, knitting, juggling or video game playing ... are acquired by repetition. Even though we know the critical importance of repetition in effecting change, we don't know it. As adults we frequently look at our lives and seek a particular enrichment, change in pattern, or shift in consciousness. Perhaps we want to remember to stand up and stretch more often during our workday, or we want to become more acknowledging of those with whom we share our lives, or we want to be more present to the wonder of the world around us. We seem to believe these changes can be accomplished by edict, resolution or choice. Mostly we do not succeed. In fact, we fail so often that many of us decide we're too weak-willed, old or rigid to make these changes. We're selling ourselves short. We’re not too weak-willed, old or rigid. We're simply not doing out homework. Just as research has demonstrated that studying how learning occurs helps us to create ways to expedite the process, learning about change can help us find more effective ways of optimizing our own development. We’re not too weak-willed, old, or rigid. What we lack is what we've always needed to acquire a new behavior pattern ... practice. We're not talking about a lot of hard work. We're talking about our own gentle, guiding hand, reminding us on a regular basis to consider our options. How often is a regular basis? How about once an hour? Let’s say that you think you would be healthier if you stretched more often. Your back frequently gets stiff, because you sit too long. You know you should get up more often to stretch, but you don’t think of it. You’ve tried. You’ve said to yourself, "Self, you should get up and stretch more often!" And it hasn’t lasted very long. Maybe it lasted five days? Five hours? Five minutes? What if once an hour you got a gentle reminder, "Psst! It’s been an hour since you stretched last. How about it? Feel like getting up and taking a break?" You have the choice not to act on the thought, but at least you were reminded, and an hour from now you're going to be reminded again. In fact, at the rate of once an hour, during the 16 hours most of us are awake, you’ll have 16 opportunities to practice each day. Over a week that’s 112 opportunities, 480 in a month. That’s enough to establish a pattern. That’s enough to make a difference. No one else is involved; little or no cost is incurred. And there are so many changes that are ideal candidates for this kind of hourly reinforcement. The technology behind this simple approach to change is a humble, digital watch. It'll chime on the hour. It'll beep in precision. It'll communicate softly, subtly that now is the time to:
It is so simple, and you can do so much with it.
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About the Book
Beyond method, there are two aspects worth taking seriously: content and synchronization. Regarding content, we suggest you pick a word to focus on for a month. It should be a word YOU think is worthy of being considered once an hour, as many hours as you can, for a month. The power of really coming to terms with what the word means in your life won’t be apparent until the repetitions have been experienced. Just have the word. Notice what comes up for you when the chime beeps. This method is about simplicity; just let a word circulate through your brain once an hour. Yes, you can be more active than that, but, at least initially, just let the thought of the word be enough. You can enter the Olympic chiming events later. Let's take the word "present" for an example. Everyone can profit by becoming more present, by living more in the now. As has been said many times, many ways, the past is past and the future has yet to get here. All we really have is this moment. Yet we all tend to live anywhere but right here, right now. So many of the goodies in life are only available in the present moment and the more we remain present, the greater the access to our real lives we really have. When we live in the past, we tend to be victims of regret and when we live in the future, we tend to be victims of worry. Neither is very constructive. Being here now allows us to enjoy each breath, to feel the sun on our cheeks, to see the beauty in a tree. So, what if, for one month, each time your watch beeps, you ask yourself to get present? Be here now! Over the course of a month you will be reminded roughly 480 times to "be here now." You'll be more attentive. You'll notice the dissolution of what gets in the way of you being more aware, more conscious, more tuned in. Synchronization is the second aspect of working with a digital watch that can add a powerful component to your experience. What you can do on your own with your watch is quite amazing. But what you can do with a watch and other people ... lovers, friends, family, and coworkers ... can be VERY interesting. To capitalize on the possibilities of playing with others, synchronization becomes important. If you and your significant other have agreed that each day at work, each time you chime you will think fond thoughts of each other, it feels kind of special to know that you're doing so at exactly the same moment.
About the Author
Jim Lew is an independent consultant with a background in theater, education and psychotherapy. He has worked in diverse fields and has over two decades of experience facilitating groups, training, and consulting with organizations. Jim has been self-employed since 1982. Prior to that he was a teacher in the Chicago School System, a social worker for the State of Illinois, an employee with the Federal Office of Education as a trainer, system consultant, and presenter. Since becoming an independent, Jim has trained and consulted with the coal industry, Hollywood producers, corrections institutions, police departments, city governments, as well as Fortune 500 corporations. Jim was raised in the Midwest and received his B.A. from Grinnell College in Iowa (1970), where he was student body president. His family had a Chinese restaurant on Route 66 in Amarillo as a child and later lived in Wichita until he left for Grinnell in 1966. Jim settled in Chicago in 1970 after meeting Saul Alinsky and becoming interested in community organizing. After Mr. Alinsky died in 1971 Jim decided to become a psychotherapist. He trained in Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, and became certified in Neuro Linguistic Programming. In 1982 he transferred his group skills and learning models to the corporate sector. Mr. Lew has a twenty-year relationship with members of the Lakota Tribe of Pine Ridge, S.D. Jim flies sailplanes, ultralights and gyrocopters. Jim has trained, consulted, and been a presenter to numerous business and civic organizations ranging from the public sector to top corporations. Jim applies skills learned in therapeutic milieus to business situations to deal with difficult organizational problems. He has consulted with Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as the President of Hyatt. Jim has been training and presenting in the area of Diversity since the mid eighties.