THE FUSE

Motivational speakers love butterflies. So do gurus and pastors and coaches. Butterflies offer a stirring metaphor for the potential of human transformation. You disappear into a chrysalis, do some mysterious inner work, and emerge shockingly upgraded, effortlessly beautiful, and ready to soar. It's a lovely image, but it has one glaring problem: Almost none of us experience change that way. Most of us don't wake up one morning with a brand-new identity. We wake up feeling oddly uncomfortable in the old one.