A time of change can make our lives seem difficult but it also brings us opportunities.
We can grasp this more deeply when we understand four things.
First, it’s not just our own lives that are becoming more difficult to predict and control but the entire world. So many changes are happening in technology, politics, society, and the environment that any project, started by anyone, anywhere, is likely to turn out differently from the way they planned or expected. It’s not just us, it’s everything. (Just look at the news stories over this past week.)
Realising this and accepting it enables us to let go of our emotional attachment to achieving any one particular outcome and yet still do our best to achieve it. Then, if things don’t turn out in the way we wanted, we know that it’s not our fault, it’s just the times that we are living through. This makes it easier to find a new way forward.
This is the attitude that enabled Thomas Edison to invent the lightbulb. Each time he failed he said, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” And then he moved on to his next attempt.
The second realisation is that if we can’t rely on the outside world to bring us the stability we need then we have to create our own internal stability and direction. We can achieve this when we deeply understand our purpose, our values and what a worthwhile life looks like to us. The more deeply we then accept this description of who we are and who we most want to become, the better we will be able to respond no matter what happens. Because as Zig Ziglar put it, we will know that:
“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”
The third step is to realise that ten years ago we did not have the skills we have today. We acquired these skills directly as a result of the challenges we faced in the past. So the challenges we think we face today are actually opportunities for us to become whoever we most want to become in the future. And we get to choose which challenges we ignore, which we engage with, and how we respond. We are in control of how we respond to this churning world. And the clearer we are about what matters most to us, the more easily we will be able to choose the responses that inspire us most.
This brings us to the fourth realisation: that we are not just human beings we are human becomings. We are not the same people we were a year ago, let alone five or ten years ago. And we are certainly not the same people we are going to become in five or ten years from now. We are always changing, always becoming. And the person we become tomorrow is determined by the choices we make today.
In this time of change, no-one can predict what is going to happen. That is just the way it is.
So let go of your emotional attachment to any particular outcome but still do your best to achieve it. Find out and accept who you are and who you most want to become. Choose the ways that you respond to this churning world, and choose the responses that inspire you most. And realise that you are not just a human being you are a human becoming.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Choose to use this time of change to grow… into the person you most long to become.
Adapted from The Churning, Inner Leadership: a framework and a set of tools for building inspiration in a time of change.
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