Transformation and being a Hyper-You

Transformation is an oft-used phrase today, as individuals and corporations all strive to achieve higher levels of success. Around forty to fifty years ago, it was enough to be the best you could be, usually in one field of endeavour that you stayed in throughout life, unless it was disrupted by war or some other external event.

In this society people tended to see themselves as situated in a particular context - work, community, social milieu - throughout their lives, and the only way to improve was to develop within that particular environment, unless they were removed from it, often forceably. The stories of successful people from that time were about progression, advancement, of moving upwards within their social milieu. The 1956 movie 'Giant' is an iconic representation of the era.

In the sixties and seventies it was about challenging the status quo, of establishing a place in an area of our own choosing, rather than one that society dictated for us. Women, indigenous peoples, along with others from what we now call 'equity groups' claimed their right to a stake in hitherto unavailable fields of endeavour and social groups were disrupted and reorganised as new people entered them. Success stories were about people who questioned and rebelled against established customs and traditions, even those in society's elite. Heroes and heroines tended to be outrageous rather than staunch pillars of the community - Woodstock  (1970) was an iconic movie of this era.

In the eighties, there was a sense that we all had hidden or latent talents that, if exposed, would lead to greatness - that our nirvana was there waiting for us, and it was our duty to approach this, either step by step or in an amazing leap - how we did it didn't really matter. Think 'Ghandi' and 'A Woman Called Golda' (1982)

The nineties saw us looking outside ourselves - tarot readers, naturopaths, essential oils and  alternative medicines would take us on a journey to a new world. We had 'Lorenzo's Oil' (1992) to show us the redemptive power of non-mainstream medicine.

And now we have seen the noughties come and go, an age in which ideas about transformation began taking over as the new age thinking (as in the series of movies called 'Transformers'). We could be anything we could dream we could be; we could go anywhere in the world; we could make choices about whether we lived in a nuclear family, an extended family, or no family ('Something's Gotta Give' 2003). We were the super-powers we had previously assigned as comic-book heroes - in short, we could transform ourselves into any shape we desired.

Now, and especially following the latest global financial crisis, we realise we are still human after all. We are looking back and wondering if things have changed much, or at all, and will they ever. Maybe life is meant to be boring when all is said and done.

Well not quite, we have made a few strides forward since the fifties, and possibly some backward - but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The next stage of transformation, to fit the current age (whatever we call this decade) is internal. We can only fix ourselves - each person has to play his or her own part in keeping the world an environmentally-friendly and humane place. We also have to dust our own attics and cellars. In this stage, transformation is not about becoming a better you, or a different you, but simply, 'more you' - a you that is authentic, living in sync with your own values, life mission and individually set goals, which are remarkable simply because they are yours.

Put another way, this means putting in effort to get somewhere exciting, but in doing so affirming the real you. This has its own challenges, because first you have to know who the real 'you' is - or, perhaps, doing the right thing will lead you to you. What shape will this transformative narrative take? I don't know yet, but it will be exciting finding out. Can you imagine an iconic movie of the current decade 2010-20? Who will be the hero or heroine, and what will they be doing? Will the transformation be obvious or discreet, and how will it manifest itself on the screen?