Disrupters

Disruptors affect every area of our lives.

Imagine getting married to someone of the opposite sex only to realize that you’re gay. Or imagine discovering that the gender you were assigned at birth doesn’t match who you really are.

As he collected stories of transition, Bruce heard about these kinds of transformations all the time. In fact, he identified 52 kinds of life changes that people experienced time and again. He called them disruptors, and categorized them into five key themes: the body, love, work, identity, and beliefs.

Bodily disruptors range from gaining weight to experiencing chronic illness. One woman recounted how her life had been turned upside-down in college when she experienced sudden liver failure and nearly died. Many Americans are familiar with having their lives affected by health scares: six in ten suffer from chronic conditions like heart disease.

Disruptors in the area of love include all kinds of changes in interpersonal relationships. Some people’s lives change when they have a baby, or need to start caring for elderly parents. Others may get divorced and create a new family constellation. This is an extremely common disruptor. The idea that most people will get married and stay in a fixed family unit is completely outdated. In fact, marriage rates have fallen by two thirds since the 1950s, and most households are headed by single people or unmarried partners.

In the area of work, transition has become the norm. A tenured physics professor who was interviewed for the Life Story Project threw in the towel to pursue YouTube stardom with his band, while a freelance writer was inspired to leave journalism to become a mortician. These aren’t isolated incidents. Statistics show that most people work an average of just four years at each job. Most people will work in at least 12 different positions before turning 50.

The other kinds of disruptors are in the areas of belief and identity. People may experience changes in religious beliefs or gain new perspectives from earning a college degree. Changes in identity can be sparked by anything from moving cities to reevaluating one’s gender.

The average person experiences 36 disruptive changes over the course of their lives. Some of them can be easily metabolized, but as we’ll find out in the next blink, some will shake the very foundations of our lives.