I KNOW I SHOULD BUT I CAN'T CHANGE

 

Change!  Why is it so darn hard?

Recently I blogged about fighting the complacency of "We have always done it that way"  in the face of disruptive change.  Why do we feel that change is so difficutl?  That is because we are in a comfort zone and we are comfortable with our current habits.  Oh, we know we should get around to changing but we will wait until tomorrow.  But by continuing to go with the flow we will decline.  Staying still is really going backwards.

Let’s face it … we live in a changing world. EVERYTHING changes and it’s time to acknowledge the cold, hard truth. That is, much as we’d like to, we cannot control everything that happens to us in life. We can, however, change the way we react to what happens.

One of the key reasons change might come hard has a lot to do with one of the tools your brain uses regularly. This tool helps you get through your days with the speed and accuracy you need without getting bogged down with minutia. 

This tool is called habit. Think about this for a minute. How many daily activities do you do without thinking about them? Let’s take your morning routine, for example. You probably awaken at the same time every workday, using the same alarm. You stumble through the same actions as showering, grooming, eating, and beginning to move through your day.

Repetition of habits does wonderful things like create memory. But, how does your body know a good habit from a bad habit? It really doesn’t. It’s sometimes much easier to turn on your internal auto-pilot and let it run wild and free while giving no thought at all to learning new things.

Too much of this automatic behavior allows your brain to work even harder to keep things in the order it wants so it can provide the structure it thinks you want. And, it’s that hard work that contributes to what you might say is a natural aversion to change.

You might be naturally averse to change but the flip side of a saying you’ve heard before is totally true: You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

So, how do you learn new tricks? By being smart humans and using your brain’s natural tendencies to work FOR you, not AGAINST you. Identification of what you want to change is of key importance. What habits might you have that you’re struggling to hold onto when you should really be letting them go?

•          Once you begin to acknowledge a change needs to take place, you’re taking your brain out of it usual repetition-loving state.

•          First you can figure out what to do.

•          Then you give yourself permission to be vulnerable and start doing it.

•          Then you begin taking right action.

•          You will gain some momentum. As you continue you finally replace that old habit with a new and better one.

•          You will have relapses, but it is totally within your power to learn from them.

 

Once you’ve begun to CARE about being uncomfortable and vulnerable and opening yourself up, then changes will occur. Outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens! Get out of your comfort zone!  For a similar post on our web site see STILL NOT READY TO CHANGE?

Are you ready to challenge the status quo?

Contact us for a free consultation to learn more

or call 914-953-4458.

 

 

Business Coach - Strategic Plans - Sales and Marketing Coach

Grant Schneider - Leadership and Business Coach Creating Successful Business Outcomes

President Performance Development Strategies

- Business Coach

- Business Performance and Strategic Business Plans 

- Sales and Marketing Coach

- Organizational Effectiveness

- Time Effectiveness and Organization

914-953-4458, Armonk NY 10504 grant@pdstrategies.com

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