Why is it called ‘The Churning’?

People often ask me why this book is called “The Churning”. I tell them there are three reasons.

The first is the churning that is happening around us: the changes in politics, the economy, society, technology, and of course in the environment. Together these have created a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. This is the outer, physical churning we face.

The second type of churning is the inner, emotional churning we can sometimes experience as a result: the feelings of loss, uncertainty, anxiety, and even fear that can easily arise when so much change is happening all at once. These can make us feel churned around like a sock in a washing machine. This is our inner, psychological and emotional churning.

And the third kind of churning is the type that turns cream into butter: the churning that makes us stronger and more valuable. Because the fact is that change is nothing new. It has always been with us**. What is different today is only the rate and scale of the changes we are facing.

So if we learn to develop new attitudes, skills, tools, and techniques we can learn to handle even this higher rate of change. And once we have those skills then we can start to use the changes we face as opportunities to become clearer about what matters most to us and more able to achieve that.