Perhaps with knees trembling from excitement and anxiety, you climb up to your figurative 16-foot diving platform. You are about to dive, head first, fully accepting your new reality. As each step takes you further from the safety of the ground, you recount all the reasons you know and feel you can do this. Inhaling deeply, you courageously walk towards the edge of the platform and, with only a brief hesitation, dive off.
As you emerge from beneath the water, you feel your heart fill with pride, joy and wonder. Then, you hastily climb the ladder and dive off again. You have chosen to no longer be bound by your change.
In my last article, “Leaders: What Will You Have to Embrace?” I shared the most significant characteristics of the sixth stage of change, “Embrace.” In this article, I’ll introduce the seventh stage, “Champion,” to help you determine if you are on this stage of the change process and provide techniques to create forward movement towards mastery.
Claim Your Voice
You should examine your life for components that could hinder your future success with particular emphasis on strengthening your overall financial well-being. A desire to thrive motivates you to work to resolve conflict, especially in relationships. Your willingness to take more significant risks includes saying what needs to be said, even when it is difficult, and asking for what you want and need. Yes, you have claimed your voice. You have become bolder and more courageous. Increasingly, you choose whom and what remains in your environments, and health and wellness play a central role. You choose your own path. Your presence, actions and results inspire others to seek you out. With new insight, you observe others’ thoughts, emotions, actions and energy as they go through changes. You have bounced back from several significant setbacks and have started to identify when dynamic energy, a different kind of energy, fuels you. You have begun to grieve some of the most profound elements of your loss.
Ride the Waves
Without a doubt, you may have wished your change never happened. However, your perspective has shifted. You no longer view most of the things related to the change as negative. To achieve mastery over your change, proactively extract every ounce of goodness from the experience and release anything that could hold you back.
Although feelings of anxiety and fear may continue to rise and fall like a wave, remember: you have learned to ride the waves. Brace yourself against the waves of uncertainty with the evidence of the numerous challenges you have successfully risen above since your change began. Allow your belief that mastery is possible to fuel your determination to continue to proceed with a victor’s, not a victim’s, mindset.
Explore Within
I remember believing that if I did not allow myself to think about an award for which I was nominated, I would not want it. If I did not want it, I would not have to face the fact that I was afraid to desire it because I feared it was beyond my reach. It is truly amazing how we can hide part of ourselves from ourselves. Sometimes, we make assumptions to keep us safe, or we may hide aspirations beneath false contentment. Have you ever tricked yourself into believing something that was not true?
To rise above deeply entrenched thoughts, you must pursue self-exploration with a passion. Become curious about everything you think, feel and do. Challenge assumptions. Even though internal exploration may cause emotional discomfort, dig deep. You will emerge stronger with more clarity and focus.
Honor Your Voice
As your desire for professional growth deepens, you will no longer be content to whisper your goals and dreams nor ask for permission. Speaking up for yourself on challenging issues related to your change is no longer one of many options, it is the only choice. To do that, take a proactive — not reactive — position in uncomfortable situations or conversations, especially when your boundaries are not being honored.
Although I encourage you to claim your voice and choose your path in areas beyond your change, do not be discouraged if you do not achieve the same level of success. When we target specific muscles during exercise, even though our overall body benefits, not all parts of the body will benefit equally. To reach the “Champion” stage in the change process, you have built and flexed many muscles to become a champion for the specific change you have experienced. Other areas in your life will benefit, but probably not to the same degree.
The next article will introduce the eighth stage of the “Nine Aspects of Change,” “Welcome.”
Donna Johnson-Klonsky, MBA, PCC
DJ Consulting Services Inc.
East Fishkill, New York 12533
djohnson@djcsfirm.com
845-447-1037
