At its core, change is about letting go of old ways of thinking and doing in order to replace them with new ways of thinking and doing. Those old ways are our habits…they are triggered, and our bodies, our minds, perhaps our hearts and/or our mouths, respond in ways that are quite literally neurologically programmed in us.
If we want to disrupt the pattern we need to be conscious of the trigger, and then intentionally intervene before the response kicks in. This requires us to be present at the moment the trigger is fired. Yet how often are we present with ourselves?
How often are you present with yourself?
When I ask my clients this, I often get responses like, “I’m always with me, except when I am asleep,” or “My brain is always going…working, reading, daydreaming.” Sometimes I hear “I talk to myself all the time, planning what I want to do next, or telling myself what I just did wrong.” And, every once in awhile it is, “Why would I want to be present with myself? I’m so (boring, lazy, stupid…).”
While each of these responses speaks to some form of mind-body connection (or lack thereof), none of them speaks to presence. As I am using the term here, the core characteristics of presence with oneself include self-awareness in the moment (self-observation) and non-judgment. Let’s look at each of these characteristics briefly, and discuss why they are so critical to change. [Read more…]
Resilience is the ability to adapt to high levels of disruptive change while maintaining high levels of well-being and productivity. It is the result of applying a set of change muscles that help you use your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy most effectively when you encounter challenges. Understanding what resilience is and how it works is a very helpful tool for change leaders, change agents, and anyone going through change. (Hmmm…that might be everybody!)
What does poetry have to do with personal or professional change?
Our beliefs are our truths. They are the way things are. They are “facts,” often taken for granted. Much like those truths in the Declaration of Independence, we hold our truths to be “self-evident.” They are unquestioned. They are what we believe. They are Truth (with a capital T).
We act like there is work, and there is our other (some call it our “real”) life. In this scenario, events that occur in one have nothing to do with the other. The reality, however, is very different.
people seem to be able to move across the country into a new job with a new employer, and to do so with relative ease. For others, moving the coffee pot in the break room leads to weeks of consternation, frustration, and lost productivity. Most people fall somewhere in between. And, even those who move through most changes with apparent ease do find change difficult at times. So why are some changes so difficult?