I’ve been thinking about the concept of transformation. The word and the concept feel sort of magical to me. It’s the caterpillar becoming a butterfly and the ugly duckling the beautiful swam and it’s the change we sometimes see when someone’s face alights with a smile that lights up a room.

But is it really possible to create transformation in ourselves and in the world around us? Is it possible to move something or someone so significantly that they, or we, are transformed? Or is it more likely that what we can influence is really evolution. It is change, when we are successful, but change that is incremental steps and not the dramatic overarching change of real transformation.

Even if our goal is transformation, there is process, there are steps, there is a road we need to travel. It seems so simple, so swift for the caterpillar but I suspect it is neither. The change is natural, and pre-ordained, surely but in the lifespan of a butterfly, there is a period of struggle and uncertainty.

When we seek to transform ourselves or our lives, when we seek to transform organizations, we must dedicate ourselves to the goal and push towards it. We must determine the course of action we will follow and we must know, and accept, that there are obstacles we will need to overcome.

But I wonder if we ever reach the end and stand back and recognize that, indeed, the transformation we sought has come to pass. Or has the effort, the struggle so consumed us that we cannot see beyond the journey to the outcome, that we can only continue to see the next hill we have to climb, the mistakes we made along the way, the “if only” moments that we all hold.

I often say that I wish I had a magic wand, wish I had the ability to drive change, of all sorts, with just a wave of that powerful baton. Sadly, I don’t. But I do have a commitment to drive change, to be an agent of change, to change myself and influence change in others. Will I ever reach a moment when I truly see transformation? I don’t know. But I do know that I will continue to try, always with a full heart.