Unsteady State

What is Unsteady State?

In order to understand the concept, let's start by talking about steady state.

Balance

In its simplest form, steady state is a state or condition of a system or process (as one of the energy states of an atom) that does not change in time. ("Steady State." Merriam-Webster.com. Accessed September 30, 2013. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steady state)

Let's use an example: imagine holding a ball at arm's length. As long as you hold the ball still, the ball doesn't change. It's in steady state. Now, you let go. The ball drops because the force of gravity is pulling on the ball and there's no other force to counterbalance it. After a couple of bounces, the ball comes to rest on the floor and returns to a steady state. So, steady state is essentially when all the forces acting on an object are balanced and the object doesn't change or move.

Human Tendency

As humans, we try to find our own steady state. We spend our youth trying to learn how the world works so that we can go out and find our space. When we find that space, we get comfortable and we try to protect that space from change. Nobody likes change. But life IS change...

Unsteady State

So I came up with the concept of Unsteady State. It's the idea that sometimes we have to consciously leave the steady and comfortable. Doing so gives us the opportunity to grow and understand ourselves better. We'll get a chance to explore a lot of things in this blog, but that concept of our unsteady state will always be there.