2014 - "All Change!"

A group exercise we run ask people to turn their backs and we then  ask them to change FIVE things, turn around, and stop the changes. When we ask them how they felt about the exercise almost everyone feels that the change was uncomfortable and difficult to do and they had not enjoyed it.

We ask how many people had removed something and everyone had.  We then ask why they had not added things.  There was no rule that said you couldn’t pick up a pen and put it in your pocket or borrow a watch from a friend. With that in mind we ask them to change three more things.

 They found this a lot simpler to do and far more enjoyable. 

Change is not automatically a bad thing – it is simply change and as such it is uncomfortable for us because we don’t like leaving our comfort zone.This feeling costs us a lot in business simply because people generally decide to do nothing.  I suspect as much as, 40% of our potential income is lost because we cannot inspire our would-be clients to take action.We are nearly all the same. We will not change unless the change offered is so positive and powerful that we cannot resist it or so negative and unpalatable that we cannot afford not to change.

Sports people accept change as a necessary part of growth and striving to be their best.  They tweak and fine-tune to try and get that extra 100^th of a second. 

I had the luck to meet Nathan Cowen and Joseph Sullivan at a conference and the chance to talk to them was a real pleasure.

It was incredible to listen to their fine-tuning done over the years.  For example, they completely reinvented their rowing system. Joseph would row the first three quarters of the race and be exhausted so that Nathan was fresh for the last quarter and powered through to the end.  In the video watch how they explore in the last 500m.They’ve switched places in the boat, oars, stroke, even the small monitor they have in the middle of the boat that Nathan watches (he’s the talky one) to fine tune even at race time. Without these microscopic changes they would never have been gold medallists and they embrace them willingly and take them on board.

Here is an interesting thought. Nathan describes himself as risk adverse – so he changes to remove the risk of failure – a different and powerful view point. 

Nathan’s life changed twice soon after - when he asked the love of his life to marry him in August and a month later when he had to pull out of rowing due to a heart problem -One good change, one not so good. But Nathan’s attitude is strong and he is now moving on to the next stage of his life.

Embrace 2014 and all the changes it will bring, not with dread or trepidation, but with a focus on how bright your future could be, and the potential that another year holds.