Starting a change: Failure is a certainty unless ...

Try rewinding some conversations from last year in your mind. A colleague wanted her start up another wanted to change career paths, find a better job. A friend wanted to lose weight another wanted to eat healthy, drink less, stop smoking. The spouse who wanted to spend less, save more. Not surprised if you find that most of them have done nothing, not moved an inch forward. Most of them wanted to desperately change and mind you making change for these life issues is not rocket science. Yet 9 times out of 10, a change is neither made or if made does not sustain beyond few days of initial euphoria. Change for such simple matters need not be so complicated. Yes, there is a way to not only make a change happen but also for it to stick.


Key questions to think about for making a successful and sustainable change

1. Will the talk and ideas get converted into action for making a change?
• Depends on the pain at the start or the prize at the end
2. Will the actions lead to a successful and sustainable change?
• Depends on how well you know the path from start to finish and the discomfort you are willing to endure while making the change.

 
Pain at the start

• Intense unbearable pain in your life that you run like hell from the current situation
• A monthly salary is comfortable .... losing it for your start up idea is not going to be easy
• Eating is fun .... controlling it to lose weight is not going to be easy
• Make life in its current situation painful for it to create a change

Prize at the end

• The prize at the end of the change must be so enticing that all the effort in making a change
• You want to lose weight ... visualize the slim you ... is the image of the slim you so enticing that you will say no to a slice of pizza or scoop of ice cream now ... for some it is enticing ... for most its not
• We all want the prize, but it is not so enticing in our mind that we are able to put in the effort required to make the change

The road from the start to end

• This is the simplest of the challenge to manage
• You may not know how to do what you want to do
• For simple issues of life we know how to make the change, so it should not be a big issue
• You want to lose weight ... you don’t know enough about food and exercise and are unable to lose weight ... learn or seek help
• For some complicated matter where you really don’t know, you can self-learn, learn from your mistakes, seek help or reach out to an expert

Pain in the middle ... the pain while change is happening

• This is thing single most important determinant of sustainable change
• You want to quit smoking, withdrawal symptoms are for real, not imaginary
• Your start up is not working out, you are running out of money, a real pain not an imaginary one
• Few have the ability to just keep soldiering on and march past the pain
• Most of us need a support mechanism to handle the pain while we are making the change
• We need the support of group, person, thing or strategy to help us manage the pain

Looking at the path of change from a different set of lenses gives us the strength to take on the enormity associated with making big and small changes.