The truth about change and how you can learn to love it

If you ask anybody if they like change in their life, the chances are they will respond with a resounding Yes.  Most people say that they are very open to change.  They will even go as far as telling you that they live for it, they look for it, and when it happens, they embrace it.

All of us have been around people all of our lives. (duh) And although people may say they are open to change. What they say and what they do, are polar opposites.

Most people don’t look for change.  Most people don’t live for change.  And when change happens, they typically don’t embrace it, at least not initially.

Why don’t we though?  Lets be honest about it here.  Change is hard.  Change requires effort.  Change requires us to get out of what we are comfortable in doing.

As a trainer for many years.  I have watched countless people attend my courses.  The courses I teach are usually eight to twelve weeks in length.  Or they could be over two or three consecutive days.  No matter the format of the courses, three day or twelve week, 95% of the participants will always come in to the session/course and sit in the same seats, week after week or day after day. Now as a trainer I know this, and I mix it up a lot.  However, if I let the participants decide they would come in and take the same seat week after week.  Wherever they started the first day, they will be sitting there (if allowed) the last day.

Now is there any harm in sitting in the same seat?  No.  However, it points out the bigger issue. Which is we all tend to do whatever we are comfortable with or what we get used to.  So if something becomes comfortable and we get used to it.  It is much easier to keep doing that instead of changing it.

Even, when I mix up the seats, the participants will gradually make their way back to their original seat when allowed.

Again, there is no harm in sitting in the same seat, but as I said earlier, it is a symptom of something bigger.  It is hard for us to change and unless we are forced to change, we will continue to do the same things over and over.

I recently had a participant in one of my courses tell me about their daily routine.  This person oversees a large team. Under his leadership he has a few other leaders.  In his daily routine he would always walk through a certain area in his workspace.  He did this everyday.  After I had challenged him in one of the sessions to do things differently, he made a choice to take a different route in his daily walk, where he now interacted with some people that he would not normally interact with.

By following a different path he was forced to interact with a person with whom he didnt have much of a relationship with. He made the decision to engage with this person.  Which led to a deep conversation about this individual. He tells me that he learned so much about this person that it will help him lead them better and he was already seeing positive results from this individual since this interaction.

All of this happened, because of a little effort to make a simple change.

Here are three things you can do today to learn to embrace and love change.

1.  Change the small things: Several years ago, I decided to make a small change in my life.  I was like most people and waited as long as I could before I would get up in the morning before I had to go to work.  I had to be at work at 8:00 am, so I would get up at 6:30, or sometimes push it until 6:45-7 if I thought I could.I made the decision to start getting up at 5:00 am instead.  Some of you might be saying, that is not a small change. But in the grand scheme of things it really is. This little decision I made to get up a little earlier changed my entire life. I’ll just say it like this.  Benjamin Franklin; one of the nations founding fathers said it this way:  “Early to bed, Early to Rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.  And I became more of all three because of this change.
2. If everyone agrees, the chances are its not that great: Lets be honest here.  Most people don’t create and live the life they want.  They settle for the life they earn.  And I do mean earn.  They live the life that they can afford based on their income. Many of their decisions come from how much does it cost me a month.We have all heard that we should go to college and take on debt, no matter the amount of debt either, to get a college education.  Also, most people believe that owning a home is the American Dream and is the best investment you can make. The same people that believe both of these things, are probably the same ones that are paying on both of these things as well.

   I was sold both of these same things.  I have done them both.  However, I made the decision to stop listening to everyone that was saying the same things and believed the same things.  I instead started learning and developing my own philosophy that was different than what everyone else was saying.  And guess what, I got better, I changed my life, and they all are still doing the same thing in a lot of cases.

3. Regular and frequent deposits in to my own self-education: I have an associates degree in electronic engineering technology.  I think it cost me about thirty thousand dollars. I also have a bachelors degree in business and a MBA (Masters Degree in Business Administration).  I think when you add all of that up, it might have cost me sixty to seventy thousand dollars.  All of this formal education that I had allowed me to get a job.  However, once I got on the job, I didn’t have any skills. I had some with my associates degree, so there was some value in it.  But the rest of my education didn’t prepare me for what many of the jobs I wanted actually needed me to do.After all of this formal education, I made the conscious decision to start investing in sales training programs, Leadership training programs, seminars, webinars, books, lots and lots of books.  I started making, and still do, frequent and regular deposits in to education that can help me be better in everything that I do. This one little change, changed everything for me.  It not only helped me develop new skills that I can monetize in the marketplace, but it also got my mind in a place that allowed me to move everything in my life forward.

So let me ask you.  Are you ready to make changes in your life for the better?  Are you really open to change?  If so, I would encourage you to just look at the simple everyday things in your life that you are doing right now, that you could change.  Maybe it is your daily routine.  Maybe it is who you are listening to.  And lastly, the biggest change you have to make is…And this is a must regardless of what you decide to do or not do.  Start making frequent and regular deposits in to your own self-development and self-education.

To your success and your future.