subject: Business & Life Coach Steve Mitten Mcc: On Ensuring You Reach Your Important Goals This Year [print this page] You dont have to be a genius to notice that some sort of change is always happening. Sometimes we instigate it. Sometimes we react to it. And sometimes it just rolls over us like a freight train.
Being such a constant companion in life, youd think it would be a good idea to learn a little about the nature of change. Get the lay of the land. Learn how to read the tea leaves and do it well. Learn how to ride the bigger waves of change as opposed to struggling to swim against them all the time.
Unfortunately, after 14 years as a
life coach I know few of us are that lucky. Most of us learn our lessons with change the hard way, trial and error. This is not to imply that there arent good teachings about the nature of change out there. (For example William Bridges The Way of Transition.) It's just that so few of us ever read about such things.
I bring this up because we are coming up to the season of change. That time of year when many of us step back, take account of our lives, and get ready for our annual resolutions. And, as we all know, most of our resolutions evaporate about as quickly as New Years Eve champagne.
To aid you in making more successful changes this year, it's important to note there are some types of problems where the solution is already known. You can solve the problem and make the change you want simply by having the intention and accessing a little more information or expertise. This type of change is what Harvard's Ron Heifetz has called a technical problem. So, if you wanted to get in shape, build your business, or find a new career, and the right book with the necessary instructions is all that's needed to make the changes and get the outcome you desired, congratulations you have just accomplished a technical change.
However, for many of us, there are certain important changes that cannot be made by simply accessing the required additional information or expertise. As Einstein once pointed out, "our biggest problems are never solved at the same level of thinking that gave rise to them." This principle is often in play in regards to those bigger "adaptive" types of problems, which is why we struggle so hard to make some of the really important changes in our lives. (These are the bigger problems people regularly bring to a life or Business Coach.)
The only solution to these types of problems is growth. Adaptive change requires us to develop, to shift our current views and change our existing habits and reactions. We need to revise how we view ourselves and our world and what we think is possible. This type of change takes time, focus and accountability. In particular, this type of change takes relationship, because the natural feedback that occurs between people in a close relationship is the most effective tool in revising who we think we are, and what we believe we are capable of.
When we try to make adaptive changes all by ourselves, it's like a surgeon trying to operate on themself: simply too painful.
If you have been trying to make some important changes in your life, career or business, without success, take heart. You probably aren't a complete idiot devoid of any discipline. (As you might suspect.) Rather, you probably are simply running up against an adaptive change. If you design in the right support, you will be off and running again.
Welcome to the human race. We're all like this.
And knowing this, stop trying to do it all by yourself and find the appropriate support this year. Find an experience certified coach to help you make those important changes.
