It’s tiring. There is so much talk of “managing” change, “creating” change, or even “preventing” change these days.
I think it’s time to talk about leveraging change.
Here’s three quick ways to approach change in a way that allows you to leverage it for growth. You can create change this way if you want it, you can grow during change this way if you weren’t planning on experiencing it.
1) Wide vision, narrow focus on an anchor
2) Seek big challenge
3) Practice Controllable Identification
Wide Vision, Narrow Focus on an ANCHOR
Have a goal that you are ready to trim fat for. What are you you so laser focused on that other stuff can fall away? Some friends, hobbies, money, etc. It doesn’t need to be all these things, and maybe you lose nothing, but it’s about what you’re WILLING to lose.
While you’re focusing on that, make sure you don’t have blinders on to the other things happening. In your industry, or in your other anchors (family, etc), you need to stay aware. Meditation, mindfulness, and breathing are great for this.
Seek Big Challenge
Get ready for doubters (including your own mind), some pain, some loss, and a good dose of failure. The simple question to ask yourself is similar to those that first responders ask themselves.
Do you want to go towards the challenge? Or stay safe?
There’s no judgement in the answer. But you better be asking yourself that question.
For what it’s worth, always choosing safe is boring in my opinion.
Practice Controllables
Here is the second time mindfulness, meditation, and breathing have come into it. Are you practicing the ability to be present and aware? Do you know what you can and cannot control? Far too often I work with people who are trying to implement psychological (and other framework based) tools only in moments of need/stress.
If you had to perform brain surgery on a loved one, would you only try and practice the skills when you’re in the surgery? HELL NO.
You would train them in calm situations and practice them in a scaled version of stress many times before trying to execute these skills under duress.
So don’t just use mindfulness and breathing when you’re at your worst. Practice it when you wake up, before you sleep, while driving, etc. It’s called a mindfulness PRACTICE for a reason. Once you’ve done this, seek what you can truly control. This isn’t anything in the past, this isn’t anything in (even the near) future. It’s now. It’s often physical and mental effort focused. And it’s a huge key.
Let’s take the example of a pandemic and plug it into two examples:
First, we are diving really deep into our business as we seek large investment to build some software and app interface to change the way work environments operate. We chose to do it during a pandemic instead of waiting because it’s a big challenge, it’s right in line with the vision we have, and we are only locked into what we can control (our effort) and nothing else. We are seeing success with this because we are aware of the overall climate, focused on our vision, going right against what most others are doing, and know what we can and can’t change. So…fingers crossed.
Second, teaching during a pandemic has a wealth of important learning for how to leverage change when you didn’t plan the change. There’s teachers that are going to go all in on understanding the internet, technology, and how to better interact with their students. They are seeking the challenges, focusing on their learning as controllables, and not worrying about seeming a bit “out there” in their teaching. These teachers, and their students, will benefit from that well beyond the pandemic time.
Reframe running from change, to seeking it.
Use fearing change, to create it.
Convert running from change, into leveraging it.
If you want to learn more about leaning into change in order to grow make sure you stay locked to our Instagram (@boostinstitute) and Twitter (@boost_institute and @grwsoftware) to stay up to date on our new tech venture.
If you want to learn more about leaning into change in the world of online teaching, check out the Elite Online Teaching webinar between myself and the TITAN OF EDUCATION Mr.Opher Brayer.
-Ken
