We are in a very interesting world in a time raging with change. The pandemic, a lockdown in our homes, the markets, the loan programs, employment concerns, all can cause stress and take us out of our routine without us even recognizing it disappeared.
This new world order is not going away. Our lives and business will remain unstable and fluid for the next year or longer. Anticipating this uncertainty, we should be thinking, planning, and training on the path where this world is headed, not to where it once was.
The all-time great hockey player Gordon Gretzky was asked what made him the best of all-time. His answer was simple. “I look and skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” Where are you skating?
We should be expecting the unexpected. The unexpected changes will affect many of our comfort zones and we must be ready to step up.
Let’s get the thought out of our heads that whenever we get the “all clear” announcement we all jump back into our previous lives. That is not happening. What is happening is change. We need to accept this world, our jobs, and our lives are going to be different. Changing!
“Change is not that hard, but the decision to change is the hard part.”
As leaders in business, we must embrace this change and be ready to run with it, not into it. It is important to coach and encourages your team’s understanding of the “why” of change. Leading people to adapt and modify behaviors is not easy. Leadership requires you to coach, nurture, and develop your team’s belief that it is for the best.
Most do not like change. We are comfortable in what we do and how we do it, good, bad, or indifferent and without thought.
What will this change bring you?
Let’s look at this time as an occasion to change for future benefits. First, it brings the opportunity to create new productive habits each of us has only talked about in the past. Create your own change with a new more productive and fun routine.
Make this time your training camp, to prepare, practice, and create new habits. It is important to make it enjoyable or it won’t last. Listed below are a few universal habits from some of the most successful people on the planet. They seem inconsequential, but if so, then why are so many of the most successful and happy people we know working these “small” habits. Because small steps make giant leaps. Try a couple of these:
- New and earlier wake-up time. Learn to start the day excited.
- Workout, take a walk, stretch, or yoga. Pick 1 or 2 and commit.
- Plan the day and commit to YOUR time slots. Pick and hour to read an article and then stop. 45 minutes to write the blog, then move on, 30 minutes every day to practice your elevator intro, a speech, or sales skill. Make these as sacred as your business appointments. Why? Because they are as important.
- Schedule and take short breaks to stretch, refresh, and get ready for the next session
There are many others but if we try to start with more than 1 or 2, we will not do any after a very short time.
If we use this unusual time in our lives to institute some positive habits, we will be in a position to grow exponentially. We will reap the benefits of our new routine if we work at locking them into habits. Once the virus has been brought under control will you be positioned to come out stronger from this crisis or left in fear and anger in this new world?
Successful people are intentional about the things they do every day which sets them up for productivity. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Lebron James, Tom Brady each understand that achieving great things doesn’t happen on its own. Success is directly proportionate to their positive and productive habits.
Stay on top of your game, embrace change, and create a new positive routine. If we don’t change, we don’t grow, if we don’t grow, we get left on the bench. Mr. Gretzkey shared his wisdom with another poignant statement: “You miss 100% of the shots you do not take”. Get comfortable with change, prepare yourself, and take the shot!
