On Saturday, 26th March, the clocks advanced 1 hour: 1 AM become 2 AM. For me this event is always symbolic of how fast time moves regardless of whether you are advancing in life or standing still. Many start the New Year with sincere resolutions to make a change, but research [1]by Bupa/ComRes shows that 63% of UK adults fail to keep New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps you are struggling to remember your own New Year resolution! The same research indicated that 80% of this group break their resolutions within the first three months of the year, which is right where we are. The percentages are as follows:
Not even one month 43%
One month or less 66%
Less than three months 80%
Less than a year 86%
Where are you on this continuum? The question is, why have so many already given up on all the changes they were compelled to make and thought so important in order to move their lives forward? Why do others manage to continue moving forward, making changes to improve their lives? From my experience as a leadership and performance coach, the key is the strategy employed to face change.
You will agree with me, from your own experience, that change is very difficult. However change is essential if we are to keep moving forward in our lives and organisations apace with a changing world. In the book “Immunity to Change,” authors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey confirm how difficult it is to move forward and change the status quo. For every change we desire to make there is an opposing force or behaviours that to maintain the current state of equilibrium. They say our individual beliefs as well as collective mind-sets in our organisations combine and create a natural, powerful immunity to change.
Our default is to deploy ‘technical strategies’ to solve problems or challenges which require ‘adaptive’ strategy. Losing weight is a typical example of a challenge that requires adaptive strategies – a change in mind set or lifestyle or the way we relate or perceive food, where most use a technical approach. A diet is a technical strategy to lose weight. There are rules, there is a dieting program, and there is an instructor and timeframe. This will work for some individuals, but on the whole sustained success is a rare. Research demonstrates that the average dieter will regain 107 percent of the weight he or she takes off. This is because losing weight is not a technical challenge but an adaptive one. Solving it with a technical means – dieting will not work long-term. In fact we end worse off than when we started, how disheartening and discouraging! Could this be the reason you have given up on the goals you set for yourself or organisation at the start of the year?
By revealing how this mechanism holds us back, we can deploy the correct tools to unlock our potential and enable to continue moving forward. By correctly diagnosing the deeper problem to change, appropriate strategies can be used to counteract this “Immunity To Change”, allowing us to move forward making the changes we desire to see in our lives or organisations.
So, as you read this article, where are you on your journey to change? Has your immunity to change got the better of you? Have you correctly diagnosed the problem, have you deployed the correct strategies? Are you in the 63% that has raised the white flag in surrender? If you are still holding on, how long will you last? Are you using the correct strategy to meet the challenge or are you still in the game by sheer will power and grit determination? Would it be easier if you were focusing on the real problem and using the correct strategy? Although change is difficult, success is still possible for if we correctly diagnose the challenge and deploy adaptive strategies and begin to change our mind-set.
If you found this article of interest and want to find out more and how Thinkit™ Coaching & Consulting can assist you to recapture the initiative and sustain the momentum of change and to overcome your immunity to change, get in touch with us. Whatever you do, resolve not to give up on making positive changes in your life.
The quote from Martin Luther King Jr below says, whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward. Here is the full quote:
About the Author
Mfakazi Ndebele is Director, Leadership Coach and Speaker @ Thinkit™ Coaching & Consulting Ltd and is also accredited in the use of Motivational Maps™ by Motivational Maps Ltd. He also delivers Leadership Master Classes on topical leadership issues including, Motivation and Engagement, Performance and Ethical Leadership.
For more information contact us at:
mfakazi@thinkitcoaching.com
www.thinkitcoaching.com | www.motivationalmaps.com
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/thinkit
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/dec/31/how-long-do-people-keep-their-new-year-resolutions
A Man Is What He Thinks
Many people are often baffled by how their lives have turned out and why they have ended up where they are. Few realise they are where they as a result of the thinking patterns that dominate their lives. Believe it or not, you are what you think! The thought patterns that dominate your mind define your life. The wisest man that ever lived says “As a man thinks, so is he” (The Bible,
Proverbs 23:7).
James Allen, in his book, As a Man Thinketh says, “The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires – and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.” If this is true, and I believe it is, you cannot therefore
change your life without first changing your thinking. Albert Einstein says, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
You may already be successful, that is excellent. However if you want to achieve even greater success and achieve a breakthrough to reach the height of your cherished aspirations, it is time to elevate your level of thinking to that which will deliver the outcome you desire. Conversely, you may be struggling to make a change and unable to enjoy the level of success you want.
Now is the time, which is as good as ever, to make decided steps to get a grip on and take charge of the thinking that has so far failed to deliver expected results. To get to your desired destination, you need to engage different thought patterns that will place you on a different trajectory to take you from A to B.
Some thinking patterns that people often allow to limit their success centre around upbringing, race, colour, academic qualifications, social class and gender. Yet I have met incredibly successful people in each spectrum of society mentioned above. Yes some people may use these social variances against you, but they can only succeed if you permit them to. You permit them to succeed against you when you have allowed your mind to think defeat in the first place. What you experience in your outer world is what has already taken place in your mind – DEFEAT.
All beliefs you hold are engineered by your mind. The very worst of these are self-limiting beliefs. These are beliefs about yourself that cause you to feel somehow limited or deficient in a particular area. If you hold them as true reflection of who you are, what you are capable of and a true estimate of your ability and potential, they become true for you.
Thinkit Coaching & Consulting uses innovative methods and tools to help you identify and transform limited thinking by helping you create pathways to new empowering thinking territories that deliver results you crave.
At Thinkit Coaching & Consulting your success remains the centre of our thoughts.