Follow our every move   |
Posts Tagged ‘why change is hard’
Five Actions to Promote Collegiality
April 7, 2010 | 
Author 
Posted in Academic Transitions | 
Tags: academia, academic departments, collegiality, healthy versus dysfunctional, strategies, why change is hard | 
7 Comments »
Dream Work
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
~ Mary Oliver, excerpted from “Wild Geese,” in Dream Work
Dream work is not about fantasizing. It’s about actually living your life to its fullest and being the best that you can be in this world, whatever “your place in the family of things.”
It’s called work for a reason: if it were easy to live your dreams, everyone would do it. But it takes courage and the ability to challenge yourself constantly to be better than who you are now. Here are five things you can do as you move through your life:
- Ask simple questions and let the answer emerge naturally;
- Take risks by asking: “What if I get what I want?”;
- Reinvent yourself on a regular basis;
- Keep learning, or as W.E.Deming said, “Learning is not compulsory but neither is survival;” and
- Simplify your life because less can be more.
If you do these things, you will find yourself connecting to your intentions, whether you want to finish a book, be of service to others, raise competent and responsible children, become more skilled as a teacher or presenter, or just be at peace with yourself.
Remember, if you have a dream, you work toward realizing it by making a plan.
If you don’t have a plan in place, your dream is nothing more than a fantasy.
Learning to change
David Krueger, MD is the author of 16 books. He mentors executives, entrepreneurs, and authors. In the August 2009 issue of Coaching Compass, he writes about why change is so difficult for us, and what questions we must ask ourselves in order to change.
Questions to ask yourself
Change may be difficult, but it begins with the easy recognition that you are the author of your own life story. Insight, understanding, and theory do not create change. New theories alone will not drive old lived experiences into extinction. Lasting change requires new lived experiences to replace old experiences – you invested a lot of years in the old system, and you will have to practice the new stuff as hard as you practiced the old stuff.
4 BASIC TESTS FOR CHANGE
1. What do you want to change?
2. What do you want to outgrow?
3. What do you want to avoid?
4. What do you want to enhance?
Reruns
People repeat behavior, even that which doesn’t work, because it offers security and familiarity. Doing the same thing results in a known outcome; predictability masquerades as effectiveness. When you move beyond a familiar pattern, you may experience anxiety.
Repetition reinstates the security of the familiar, even if the repetition is limiting or frustrating. By opting for repetition, people sabotage invention and imprison creativity. Stuck behavior has stuck consequences. Staying in a rut long enough begins to seem like fate. That outlook can lead to despair. The ultimate question to ask yourself about fixed beliefs or “stuckness” is: Does it work?
With regard to fixed beliefs, in my role as Coach Hillary, I would add one more question to David Krueger’s insightful words: “Does it work for the people around you that you care about?”