The more you practice inner work, the more sensitive you become to internal discord — just as a great musician hears something slightly out of tune that an untrained ear misses. Joe describes sitting with someone and noticing a tension they wouldn’t notice for years or decades.
This increasing sensitivity explains a natural progression: at first, wanting to be different is an accelerator for growth. But eventually that same wanting becomes unpalatable — it registers as friction, as discord, as just another form of resistance. The practitioner naturally shifts from “I want to be different” to “I just want to be me — as me as me can be.”
This isn’t something to rush toward. Joe, echoing David White, warns against trying to skip to the place where the want for change has dissolved. Each stage has its wisdom and its movement. “Let it have its dance. Enjoy its dance.”