When There's Too Much at Stake to Change

My transformation adventure is not for everyone. It may feel too subversive to say what you see, act on what you believe, and leave behind what (and maybe whom) you’ve always known. It is disruptive, that is true. But it is organic growth when something no longer works, makes sense, or creates the desired results, and you break the cycle to change it. Why is this hard for organizations? Because it’s hard for people, for you and for me. I choose to transform before you to share what’s so hard about change—the human side of change—because it’s not what you may think.

Although people by nature resist change, at least as a first reflex, there’s something even more frightening. (No…I don’t mean public speaking! LOL.) We fear those who do not, will not, change. This fear is such that it can even overpower our own fear of changing, of transforming ourselves, to face it.

The stakes are too high to change when you believe that success means not failing—not being wrong; not admitting your way no longer works; or you don’t know or can’t see a solution, options, or a different way to proceed. We are all familiar with this feeling because we are human. A big part of us feels this way, thinks this way. But do we truly believe this? I found out that I don’t, and many of you don’t believe this definition of success either. So why do we still feel and act as if we do?

A transformation adventure takes grit and emotional gumption to fly in the face of our own fears and those of others, to align our actions with our beliefs in all areas of our lives. What we truly believe is at stake will guide our actions, if we’re honest with ourselves. There is no judgment on those who transform themselves and those who do not. We each have our own path and timetable. But for you who fear those who do not, will not change, the spark of your own transformation adventure is now burning. What do you truly believe? And what are you willing to do about it?