ChangeItUp

Has anyone ever told you to “Embrace Change?” Didn’t it seem like a useless platitude said by a boss or from a motivational speaker? It’s funny when I think about it, because I’ve said it myself and never thought about the statements full implications, or thinking: What are people going through? Are people suffering? When I’ve said statements like this, it is my undying optimistic belief speaking. I believe that change brings new opportunities or it propels us forward from a place that we shouldn’t have remained. But many changes look quite negative and are tough to live through- if not impossible- to welcome. This list might include loss of a relationship, a loved one, health, job, money and such.

I do want to suggest to you though that, we often don’t choose the difficulties or negative changes that spring upon us, but we always choose how we respond to them.
Let’s think about 3 choices we choose when we experience change:


1. The Navigator- “How can I capitalize on the change”
Proactive, navigators can navigate they are proactive thinkers and act on it.
Navigators will capitalize on a problem or change. They will make best of a bad situation.
Think of it this way:
A seasoned sea captain who knows he cannot control the wind or currents, but can adjust the sails and steer the ship to make best use of the winds and currents and move to a desired destination.


2. The Survivor- “Let’s wait and see what happens”
Fence Sitter, (ouch!) but at times it is a wise decision to start to research, to get more information about the change, to find if the change is going to become a trend, and to know the direction a new boss or customer is going to take. The problem is that when you aren’t “in motion” sometimes it is either hard to catch up to the navigator and/or miss the extreme opportunity.


3. The Victim- “They are doing this to us again”
Reactive, we start to get bitter, helpless and feel like others are out to get us or deliberately wanting to hurt us. The “Blame Game” starts naturally as we start pointing fingers. We learn how to do this and it leads to lower performance, poorer health and depression. We want somebody else to fix the problem, it’s unfair and we were undeserving.

How do we change our thinking from Victim to Navigator?
It can be as simple as “Recognizing that the best thing to do when it’s raining , is to ….let it rain.”
Sometimes it is helpful /healthful to change your self- talk. Catch yourself when you say things like “I am too old to change” or “He makes me so mad” to “I choose not to change or “I make myself mad when he says/does…” This will make you part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. When your part of the solution you put yourself in a “thinking spot” when you think you can solve and when you can solve…..You can change!

Summary:
Change is imminent. Life isn’t fair. Lots of unfair and unjust stuff happens to undeserving people. Whatever hits the fan is usually not evenly distributed. But it’s our choice whether to stand in it or not!!!
Taking a navigator response to difficult issues means facing problems head-on by focusing on what’s within our direct control or what we can try to influence. We need to then figure out how to let go of, or at least not make things more awful and give more power to problems or issues that can’t be controlled or changed.

If you like this information, you may want to read these books:
Firing on all cylinders, Pathways to Performance, Growing the Distance and The Leader’s Digest.