How do you process change?

There are quotes that seem to state the obvious, and make you think…well, duh. For example:

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

But sometimes, the simplest ideas are the hardest ones to apply. This quote implies that we must add something or change what we’re doing if we want to get different results.

Seems simple enough, right?

However, in my experience, changing our habits and leaving a comfort zone is much harder than it seems.

The process of change involves 5 big steps: 

1. Be willing to say to ourselves, “Something is not working and prohibiting me from where I want to be.”
2. Identify the unhealthy patterns or behaviors we’ve adopted to soothe our anxiety and/or make us feel like ‘everything is going to be ok’ when it’s not.
3. Choose to believe that the pain of keeping our habits is worse than the fear/risk of the unknown.
4. Create small, reasonable goals and action steps which serve as stepping stones out of the rut created by our bad habits.
5. Make the brave first step towards your goal…then the next, then the next…until you have a new habit or default ‘way of being’.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You can apply this same process to common issues I see in business communications and culture issues:

• The way you invest in your team is safe/known to you, so you don’t look for ways to evolve because there isn’t an immediate reward.
• Your website doesn’t function well on mobile and it’s less work for you to just keep it as is instead of creating a new one.
• You know your logo and branding isn’t excellent, but it may seem costly to change it.

I don’t believe that we sit back and say, “I don’t want to grow, so I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.” But we do get settled into strategies/tactics/behaviors which produced results in the past…and then believe if we just keep doing the same things we will, eventually, get to a new place.

This is starting to sound like that ‘duh quote’ that sounds so obvious… 🙂

I want to encourage you to lean into change and tell you that the hard work is worth it. I won’t lie and say it’s easy, but your survival may depend on your ability to fight your own comfort.