I invite you to recall a time you were going through some sort of personal change, like a transformation personally. Maybe you decided to get healthy and you lost some weight, or you finally bought a new car, or even got a new haircut. How were you feeling? If you were to share that story of your personal change, what words would you use? What would your facial expressions be, your hand gestures?
Now I want you to imagine that I just walked in and told you that at your job there is going to be change. Now, how are you feeling? What words would you use, what does your face look like, what hand gestures are you maybe giving me right now?
Why is it that when it’s personal change, we tend to have these feelings of excitement, yet when it’s change at work for example, it’s negative?
It’s when that external change, that change that maybe you can’t control, that’s coming at you, and you tend to think of those things in a negative way; like it’s going to lead to something bad. You then become fearful of that change. I want to give you four words today that are going to help you with that external change.
#1: Accept
Bottom line, is change is happening. It’s happening all the time, you can’t control change. Even sitting here, you are changing on a molecular level. So accept change is happening.
#2: Expect
So now I want to move you mentally from just accepting change to now being proactive and expecting change. The next time you walk into a new situation or meeting, expect that there is going to be some change that is happening – some change that is going to be shared with you. The more proactive you are, the more you mentally expect it to happen, and the better prepared you’re going to be.
#3: Choose
You may not be able to choose that the change is happening at you, but you are in control. You get to choose how you think about it, how you feel about it, what you visualize, what you say. Those are choices that you get to make. And that then leads you to the final word.
#4: Respond
Once you own your choices about your thoughts, your words, your actions, then that determines your response. And I’m going to tell you the more positive your responses, the more likely it is that your outcome is going to be positive. It doesn’t mean everything’s going to be perfect it doesn’t mean it’s not going to have funky-ness or challenges along the way. But if you come at it with a negative response I can pretty much guarantee you it’s all going to be negative. Respond with optimism, with hope, with opportunity as the outcome.
What challenges are you facing with change? How do you deal with change? What questions do you have for me about change? Comment below I would love to hear from you.