- Change is good
- We should all adopt change
- We love change
- We should all be open to change
We hear these “statements” a lot but so many people still struggle to change because change is difficult. It’s is difficult to change from what always works. It’s difficult to push yourself to trying something new because “what if it goes wrong”. There is always risk associated to doing something differently but what holds us back is fear and the self-awareness of our fear.
We spent years in school learning not to be different, to conform to what our teachers told us to do. Why? Because “that’s the way it’s always been”. We spent years in school learning that taking a risk leads to failure and that failure is bad! Well that mind set is wrong. Failure is good. Taking measured risks is good. Change is good.
But how do we go about being open to change? Being open to change is not a switch, we need to slowly push our boundaries over time. If we start by being self-aware to our limitations we can understand that change is a process. So below are a 6 tips are how to allow yourself to be open to change. To be able to change we need to change our behaviours.
Understanding
“You can teach an old dog new tricks!”
Unknown
Age has nothing to do with one’s ability to change. Spending years closed off to change is a behaviour. We can adapt our behaviours to make a difference in our lives. If we allow ourselves to understand that there are different methods, ideas, ways of working, perspectives and way of life, we then realise than our way is not the only way. It is just one way. Understanding different perspectives stops making ‘different’ a headache, makes ‘different, just different’ and different is good.
Listening
Once we understand that there are many other new and exciting ideas out there we can open ourselves up to them. But first we need to allow ourselves to hear about them and in order to do that we need to be quiet and listen. Listening without speaking allows us to absorb the information. We can them decide for ourselves whether or not we want to implement that change in our lives.
Implementing a change
As I mentioned earlier, opening ourselves up to change is a process. I like to call it ‘a change initiative’. A with any initiative there needs to be a way to roll it out, or an action plan. Have a read of my blog on how to write the ultimate action plan which gives you the tools to develop one. This will ease the process of implementing change in your life. Remember: one step at a time.
“A problem shared is a problem halved”
The Morecambe Guardian, November 1931
Support
Implementing change in your life can be difficult. From small changes to routine to large changes to a business. Different levels of change comes with different levels of risk. With risk comes fear. Fear of failure. Fear can sometimes have such a powerful hold over us that it stops us from doing anything. This is where support of others comes in to play.
Far too often we keep everything to ourselves which means we start to overthink the problem which increases the fear towards solving the problem. By allowing ourselves to be open we can let others in. When we let others in, we open ourselves up to receiving support. However, if we let people in we need to be accept that we need to learn and grow.
The most important part of support is openly listening without ego.
J Toor
Don’t think of it as weakness in yourself but strength in numbers. Thinking of support as a weakness is your ego talking. Thinking of support as a strength leads to positive success.
The support of others is how we succeed together. Success is achieved quicker when it’s done together.
Positive and negative consequence
Behaviour dictates that without a consequence a changed behaviour will not continue. Therefore, in order to reinforce a positive behaviour (the openness to change) you need positive and negative consequences.
Positive consequences, such as rewarding yourself with a small treat when you took the risk to implement a change in your life. This will encourage you to continue this behaviour. Negative consequences, such as not buying something you want will discourage the ‘bad’ behaviour. This takes will power which is why having support with this can pay huge dividends!
How to references this article
- Toor, J. (2019). How to be open to change? Available: https://pmgrowth.co/6-tips-on-how-to-be-open-to-change?