Mastering the Dance of Growth, Transformation, and Innovation (1 of 3)
Using Change and Core Values as Stepping Stones to Success
Embracing Change is the Pathway to Growth and Progress
Change is a constant, a universal truth that is as inevitable as the rising and setting of the sun. Yet, many of us resist it, clinging to the familiar and the comfortable. This resistance often leads us into a wrestling match with the complexities and challenges of life, leaving us feeling stuck, stagnant, and struggling. But what if there was another way? What if, instead of resisting change, we learned to embrace it - to work with it, transforming the battles into opportunities?
Real transformation hinges on our willingness and ability to adapt to change naturally. This is crucial, given that change is an intrinsic part of Life, nature, and the human experience. Despite our biological tendency to fear the unfamiliar and the unknown, we can rise above our natural tendency to recoil from the opportunities that change is constantly presenting to us. The key to unlocking this potential lies in reframing change so our minds and bodies can approach it from a position of strength and empowerment.
The Limitations of Traditional Approaches
The truth is, many of us approach problem-solving or goal-setting by focusing on the project itself, the tactics and strategies of execution, the time it will take, and the tools we select because they have cool features. This approach, while common, often overlooks an important aspect that can unlock a wealth of potential: the alignment of our actions with our deeply held personal values.
Consider this. At the outset of tackling a specific challenge or setting new goals, our actions are often driven by a perceived threat or we are over-focused on a specific outcome instead of the value the outcome will generate. This is not something we consciously choose as a strategy for plotting the course to tackle these challenges. It’s more of an automatic way that we operate, and it often lacks any emotional consideration - which is important. As a result, we chart a path that is heavily dependent on physical tactics and outcomes, an approach that is often devoid of emotional investment - which means we are not leveraging our values.
This mindset is shaped by belief systems formed in earlier stages of our life, and it harbors a desire to control outcomes based on past experiences. These beliefs dictate our understanding of how physical aspects of our life should unfold. This traditional approach, however, blinds us to new possibilities and limits our potential, as it is constrained by the boundaries of our past experiences and the associated preconceived notions that come along with their use.
A Values Based Vision as Your North Star
What if we could shift this paradigm? What if we could leverage the power of embracing change as an approach, and use our personal values as the foundation for setting our course? This shift could enable us to bypass the typical fears that often hold us back from discovering and engaging our greatest potential.
This is part 1 of 3 for this post. More to come next week…
Try This On
Activities for engaging the ideas in this post!
For each of the three posts I will post a book that pertains to the content of each post. For this post it’s important to understand what we are up against.
First, let’s score your curiosity or growth mindset tendencies. Open This Link to take Carol Dweck’s mindset test, answering 20 basic questions to get your score.
You can also work the following activities to develop your growth mindset (these are also based on Carol Dweck’s work:
Embracing Challenges: Instead of avoiding challenges, see them as opportunities to learn and grow.
Persisting in the face of setbacks: Instead of giving up when you face setbacks, try different strategies and keep going.
Seeing effort as the path to mastery: Instead of thinking you should be able to do things easily, recognize that effort is a natural part of the learning process.
Learning from criticism: Instead of feeling threatened by criticism, see what you can learn from it.
Finding lessons and inspiration in the success of others: Instead of feeling threatened by other people's success, see what you can learn from it.
I highly recommend her book mentioned below. If you choose to read and engage the book’s practices, you will no doubt be participating in the practice of a growth mindset!
Enjoy!
BOOK SUGGESTION
The science behind how we think is much more than how we personally make our decisions, it’s biologically influenced, making it difficult to try new things, even when it would move us in a direction we really want to go! These books provide evidence based insights as to why we are wired the way we are and how to take action in the face of this wisdom (see definition of Reading Levels below):
Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson — Reading Level: Basic
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck — Reading Level: Intermediate
Thinking, Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman — Reading Level: Advanced
Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate - Disclosure Here
Reading Levels
Basic - Concepts and Ideas readily consumed by any reader
Intermediate - Concepts and Ideas that are more advanced for the topic arena and will stretch the ideas of readers in the early stages of exploring this type of content
Advanced - Concepts and Ideas that are advanced and typically require that the reader is familiar with the topic arena.
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