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How much are you willing to change?
Why is it worth it for you to do so?
How strong is your commitment to improve?
What resistances do you typically face?
If reading these questions brings a sense of low energy and heaviness, you are not alone. We have seen it before.
In this post, we continue exploring the matters of change and transformation, from the heart.
We will take the time to reflect on the reasons for engaging in and embracing change. Better understanding WHY you want to change will free up discretionary energy to support the process itself.
The thing is, change is essential for leaders. And you are one of them.
For example, change drives adaptability, innovation, resilience, engagement, relevance, strategic vision, stakeholder satisfaction, cultural transformation, personal growth, and competitive advantage. Embracing and managing change effectively will help you to better navigate the waves of your project, team, or organization through complexity and uncertainty.
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Developing your leadership is about building the muscles for sustained success.
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As you read along, watch out for a link to download a fundamental coaching practice to help you strengthen your self-awareness and inner compass. With it, you will build your competence to navigate the shifts in our world at your own pace and convenience.
That is indeed what coaching is all about–supporting you in becoming all you can be. Yet, rest assured, I will not tell you what to do. This is not how I coach. I will expose a perspective and some facts, and from here, you decide.
Take those lines as a provocation, a wake-up call, an incentive, or even an instigation, for you to choose, and with it become more of your ideal self. Yes, you are invited to play and dream more about whoever is it that you want to be.
As a humanist, I look around and observe what I see as a certainty: we have to change.
The multiple crises in our world serve as undeniable indicators that we can no longer ignore. Even if the outcome on the other side of this turmoil proves to be good (which I sincerely believe it will), one thing remains true: it’s time to change.
Let’s say that ahead we might have “not-so-easy times”. I say this because, as you have already experienced, when we have to change a certain amount of energy is required. To change you are to depart from your habitual pathways. Welcome dear unknown! It is time to explore.
Updated worldviews, renewed beliefs, uncommon thoughts, unfamiliar emotions, and novel behaviors–this is what change is about.
To change, autopilot is to be turned off. We have to consciously manage our attention, build awareness, and embrace our ability to respond.
If we persist, intentionally and repeatedly, improved habits are built. We become “someone else”. At first, it feels strange and different.
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Who do you want to be?
Try it on. Imagine a novel future self for yourself. You can even choose one you have never imagined before. Dare to envision one that might feel somehow impossible. Please don’t be shy, play with it. If it helps, close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and let it surface.
Sensing and imagining all that you could ever become. Can you spur that quantic snapshot of a potential version of yourself?
Mine is not afraid anymore. She freely inspires a better world by peacefully standing still on crowded avenues. Her body vibrates at a different frequency. When she publicly speaks uncommon poetry unexpectedly flows. In her speech, a sense of magic rhythm awakes the heart and hypnotizes the soul. Even with no words, you can tell she is conversing with who you most deeply are. In her eyes, there is a bright reflection of a brave new world made of unconditional love.
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What is your future self doing in that parallel world?
Whoever they, he, or she is, remind them: Change is made in the moment-by-moment of every here and now.
We are attempting to connect with, and playfully sense, the field of possibilities of all you could ever become. I was reading Richard Strozzi-Heckler the other day and he helped me to better understand:
Energy follows attention.
Attention increases focus.
Focus facilitates awareness,
and awareness facilitates choice.
Let’s try to experience it as you read on. Observe and practice while answering out loud the following questions:
What are you paying attention to?
Where is your focus?
What are you thinking?
What are you feeling?
What sensations are you experiencing in your body?
What is happening in your environment?
Well done!
You just did a simple yet profound self-awareness exercise. You might say, “Come on, Marie, that was not that difficult”. Keep the practice going; with time you will see what I am talking about.
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Let’s observe it again with a rather mundane example from my own life.
I’ve started to run. I am not a runner yet. I do not even expect to be one. I am just aiming to change the way that I relate to my body cells. I want to become someone who engages in doing sports. I might swap running for stretching, yoga, a walk in the park, or a hike up a mountain peak. It helps to build up practice that I am not doing it alone.
So far when I wake up I pay attention to what I feel, what I want, and what I can do. Some days I manage to decide to go for that run. Other days, I do nothing and stay asleep despite the ringing alarm. If it’s the weekend, I might head toward the forest right outside where I live. Do you understand what I mean?
In the process of change, there is a swing, back and forth, between progress and regress. And that is okay. Not better, not worse, not good or bad, but just how you move towards success.
The judge never wins. The real winner is the learner. If you do it, you win. If you don’t do it, but you understand what hindered you, you win too. The judge never wins. The learner always wins.
I value and respect myself for the little steps ahead as much as for the derailed attempts.
Sometimes, I tend to be hard on myself. In this life-long journey, self-acceptance and self-compassion are my most valuable allies. I keep reminding myself: Marie, become more of your own “best friend”.
I am learning to (just) do it by desire. Not because “I have” or “I must”, but because I want.
I am nourishing an inner sense of curiosity and acceptance that comes with an honest will to change rooted in self-compassion and self-respect.
I have come to understand that to successfully and joyfully change, I need to celebrate every little step, without judgment. That’s where the necessary extra energy is to be found.
There is something else I have come to comprehend. As you attempt to change, at every step, a new path is unveiled before your eyes.
Yeah! It is a discovery journey. From time to time, you might wonder…
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How do I know if I am moving towards my True North?
When in doubt, take a moment to breathe and check in with your values, they are the guiding principles of your existence. With their help, you are more able to sense if you have lost your way.
If you move slowly you’ll begin to appreciate what is moving you from the inside out. That is what leads to long-term sustainable change. By understanding what is already there, you can better move in the direction where you want to go. Remember? We practiced doing so already. Stopping by and curiously looking at how we look at the world around us.
If you have been following this journal you might also have been lately observing. What have you so far realized?
As a humanist, I observe that our planet is changing, society is changing, and technology is developing fast. All this demands that we humans also change. It’s time to become more of your true best self.
Societal change starts with oneself. Your change generates a change in everything else.
When you change, what you become influences the world. It starts within you and ripples outward to your friends and family, your team and organization, your community and region until it shapes and co-creates our shared world.
We have said it before, let us name it once more: change is inevitable.
Our conscious intention in shaping it is what matters most. So tell me leader of the World: Are you moving towards the future, or are you creating it?
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The truth is…
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You have to change in the face of ecological, political, economic, and social unrest.
You have to change given how the speed of technological change is exponentially disrupting everything else.
You have to change as the knowledge economy, made of ideas, is asking us to upgrade your cooperation and collaboration skillfulness.
By now you are already seeing and sensing the (eco)system you are in. True, too, that in every problem there is also an opportunity for growth.
Ideas in collaboration are indeed what changes the world. This is your chance to do so in better trying to solve the urgent, meaningful matters of our world.
It is time to take a stand.
Co-creating our desired shared future requires intention and purpose.
The fact is that all types of organizations are agents of change. We already know that businesses also build and shape our World.
There is societal and even planetary demand for real purpose-driven effects. You can not separate what you create from what you get; they are interdependent.
From this standpoint the better we work together, the easier it would be to move forward timely.
I see a world where organizations are places where self-actualization is possible. I, you, we have to change to more successfully use our individual and collective talents. Global workplace engagement rates are also screaming: it’s time to change.
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Could you imagine a workplace that is also the place from where you create a positive and necessary impact in the world?
I see a world where work is not about transactions anymore. Imagine using the workplace as a playground for planetary change.
Are you also wondering how are you going to be able to face the rapid change that the planet and society are asking you to undertake?
I am also trying to better understand it all, one journal post at a time, as I continue developing my ethical, emotional, biological, and spiritual heart.
I have given you a few reasons for change and I could give you even more. Yet, in truth, the most important reason is yours.
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What makes it worth it?
What is your vision for the world?
Do you want to change and become more of your best possible self?
If you feel like further exploring and enhancing your ability to positively contribute with your leadership, follow this link to unlock your potential and fast-track your development. I’ll be there, at the other end.
If you are moved to continue at your pace and on your own terms, then uncovering and better understanding your core values will help you more easily create what is ahead while staying aligned with your true north and best self.
This means moving in the direction of what is most important to you.
If that is the case, here you will find the recommended heart-based leadership practice, which invites you to follow 6 simple steps to discover it and nourish centeredness.
Power to you!
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