For the past few years, we here at Rewire have been working with people around the concept of change. Organizational change, marketplace change, personal change, circumstantial change…you get the idea.
We have been conducting a workshop entitled Thriving Through Change which has been met with a lot of positive responses. The people that go through the workshop have reported an increased ability to navigate themselves (their own thoughts and feelings) and respond in a world in which change has become a constant.
As it turns out, the human brain often perceives any kind of change as a threat and responds by going to elaborate (and often largely unconscious) lengths to avoid it. Thus, trapping us in patterns of behavior that we know are not in our best interest.
So today, I want to recommend that you do something to intentionally put yourself at odds with your own feelings of comfort or familiarity. Drive to work a new way. Order a drink you never do. Try a food that you normally wouldn’t. Make a call to someone you have been avoiding. Go to sleep earlier than you normally would. Pick something (and it doesn’t even need to be big) that you can do that would cause you some trepidation or discomfort.
“Why?” you may ask. “What is in this for me?” Let me answer that in one word:
Proof.
We must prove to our own brains that we have the capacity to make small, uncomfortable changes if we want to possess any belief that we could make bigger ones later.
People everywhere want to earn more money, have better relationships, grow their businesses, etc… etc… But, in the great scheme of actionable behavior, these desires are huge undertakings! Can they be accomplished? Yes. However, it is quite possible that our ability to grow and usher in positive changes in our lives will come when we grow in our ability to accept (and even invite) the smaller little pains that we so often avoid.
What small, uncomfortable thing will you lean into today? (And, if you’re feeling especially brave, let us know what that is in the comments below.)
Give it a try. Let us still the Lizard Brain within and watch for the small sacrifices that can yield amazing fruit.