You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.
William Faulkner
There is something about change that sometimes makes us cringe and hold back. I think that it is the unknown and our lack of belief in ourselves that keeps us from accomplishing what it is that we want to accomplish—if only we could make that first step. We know we are capable of changing but we hold back unless something calls us forth. Often we let our fears, or imagined fears, keep us from moving ahead. Sometimes we just have a first reaction of “no” for any change that is required. Whatever the mechanism we have developed for holding back when change is present, it is time to call it out and see if it really serves us.
I recently talked to a potential client who had a different protection from making a change. Her well-rehearsed protection is “changing everything all the time”. She is an idea machine with an idea a minute. She reminded me of a hummingbird flitting from one flower to the next. She would touch on something then immediately move on to next great idea. No wonder she was frustrated and unable to make a go of her business. Her business changed every other day. After listening to a seemingly endless list of ideas, I realized that she didn’t really like change, so to actually change she would have to pick one thing and just do it.
I agreed with her that the list of ideas was excellent. In fact, I pointed out that I could see a theme in the ideas that pointed to her towards a vision for her business, and from a vision for her business she could start with one offering from the list of ideas. She really didn’t like the idea of just choosing one and after some indecision she reluctantly chose one idea. We then made a little plan on how she could implement that one idea. The plan included how long the implementation would take, what the simple steps were needed to achieve the goal, how much she would charge for it, and an estimate on how much she could make. Then I asked her to just follow the plan for two weeks and see what happened. Part of the plan was to complete one step a day and report back to me every day as that step was complete.
You can probably predict the outcome of this plan. Yes, it worked. She stayed with the plan and began to meet people who really were interested in what she was doing. Within a couple of days of focusing on the project she met people who were interested in using her services. She was excited that her idea was well received and decided to follow through with providing the product. She changed her way of being and it took courage to do so.
I don’t know if the change will last. It really doesn’t matter because now she has tasted what it is like to stick with something. I think this will be the beginning of a new way of being for her.
If you are stuck and know that change is required to move forward, please give me a call. I would love to hear from you.
Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net, Miles Stuart
