Entering a New Year brings me new people to work with who either sense a change is required in their life or have been forced into a change by someone or something seen to be outside of their own control.
My work this month led to me to revisit and share the FOUR LEVELS OF CHANGE approach that I have used for years for me personally, and for others and you may find it useful.
Sometimes a person has created their own forced choice, where from deep inside of them, their unconscious mind and ever-increasing feeling of unease has simply said ENOUGH! That acknowledgement and forced choice have come via their health giving the signal.
Mentally and emotionally putting a person in a situation that can scare them on a physical level because of what they are now experiencing in their health, perhaps for the first time, and where they can no longer deny it’s TIME FOR CHANGE.
It is scary. Frightened to leave behind what we have and is known. Plus, the practical consequences that the change will cause to not only ourselves, but to those around us.
Being frightened to step out into the nothing, the unknown. The CHASM.
When our wellness is compromised through the now internally driven desire to change there is a choice to be made. “Damned if we do – and damned if we don’t”, as the saying goes. Seemingly a no-win double-bind situation.
I have been there too, more than once. FELT THE FEAR AND DONE IT ANYWAY because really the choice was forced, and I had to do it.
The following has helped me time and time again and I wanted to share it.
Also, my own belief of
LIFE IS LIKE A ROLLERCOASTER – SO I MIGHT AS WELL SIT AT THE FRONT!
THE LEAP OF FAITH
FOUR LEVELS OF CHANGE
1 COPE
We wait for things to go back to normal, to wait in anticipation that things are not going to change long term – we just need to ride it out.
2 ADAPT
We go with the flow and ‘riding it out’ becomes the norm, we just accept and go along with it believing we have little or no choice.
3 EXPLOIT
We begin to search for the positive benefits that the changes may bring. Instead of focusing on the typical what are we going to ‘lose’, we begin to look for and act upon what we may ‘gain’ in the changes.
4 CREATE
We really help ourselves and or the company we work for by searching for the positive benefits in earnest of the changed position. We capitalise on bringing about positive benefits.
COPING and ADAPTING are REACTIVE choices to working with our changes. Where we are giving away our power and not taking responsibility for the things that are happening to us and around us.
EXPLOITING and CREATING is PRO-ACTIVE where we are taking responsibility and empowering ourselves to have IMPACT, a positive impact on our situations.
THE 4TH LEVEL IS THE SUCCESS ZONE and to be strived for whenever we can.
I am not saying that the first levels are wrong.
There will be times when it is appropriate to cope and adapt. In my experience what gets missed by individuals in the process of CHANGE taking place, is the belief that there are NO CHOICES.
There are always choices.
To choose deliberately to COPE in the now and in the short term whilst we make up our minds about what to do next is a decision. It is a judgement call. To stay there long term and just roll with things may not serve our bests in either our lives or our wellness.
USE THE FOUR LEVELS OF CHANGE AS A STRATEGY – ALL OF THE OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE TO US.
For me personally, the 4th Level is my preference to strive toward, to head that way whenever I can at times of change, both positive and negative. FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY.