To finish up today…kind of reiterate some of the things we talked about. Transition is normal down to using your opposite hand to write with. It’s normal and the feelings it generates are normal. That uncomfortableness. That fear. That clumsiness. That — the fact that sometimes you feel a little stupid with this hand, but it is normal. It’s with us in everything we do. It’s with us when we miss the turn on the freeway and go up an exit. It’s just there. You deal. We need to keep — we need to engage in transition at every opportunity that we see it. We need — wee need to stop — if you’re doing this — avoiding it and pushing it away. We need to reach out and shake its hand and engage with it. Frankly, because transition is where so many opportunities will come in your life.
Another thing — back to what you were saying too — those stable parts of our life are important to us because it’s that stability that allows us the freedom to be a bit more adventurous. Having X number of dollars in the bank. You’re not going to go crazy, but you have the freedom to read that new book or do this or visit this museum or — it provides you a base platform to stand on and say, “Ok. at this point in my life, I’m stable. I understand that. Things are a little crazy up here, but I have this place to stand and now I can start to reach out — without fear — and say “What else is out there? What else can I investigate?”
Another thing — back to what you were saying too — those stable parts of our life are important to us because it’s that stability that allows us the freedom to be a bit more adventurous. Having X number of dollars in the bank. You’re not going to go crazy, but you have the freedom to read that new book or do this or visit this museum or — it provides you a base platform to stand on and say, “Ok. at this point in my life, I’m stable. I understand that. Things are a little crazy up here, but I have this place to stand and now I can start to reach out — without fear — and say “What else is out there? What else can I investigate?”
Those little things. I learned something new. I burnt a little groove. One more little groove in my brain. I Learned something new and we should all be seeking that out every day. Because it’s that that keeps us — I’m going to say something really great huge philosophical statement here — it’s our learning that keeps us alive. It’s our learning that makes us better people. It’s learning that allows us to do more and better work and do more good in the world. When we talk about big concepts and big ideas and big charities and big things. It all starts here. We’ve got to be doing those little things for yourself. Those little changes for yourself Those little learning for your yourself that bring some joy to your life. Bring some further skills to your life and just keep us feeling alive.
Those little things. I learned something new. I burnt a little groove. One more little groove in my brain. I Learned something new and we should all be seeking that out every day. Because it’s that that keeps us — I’m going to say something really great huge philosophical statement here — it’s our learning that keeps us alive. It’s our learning that makes us better people. It’s learning that allows us to do more and better work and do more good in the world. When we talk about big concepts and big ideas and big charities and big things. It all starts here. We’ve got to be doing those little things for yourself. Those little changes for yourself Those little learning for your yourself that bring some joy to your life. Bring some further skills to your life and just keep us feeling alive.
Taking that different drive to work. That’s another creativity exercise. They’ll tell people sometimes, “You’re thinking is kind of stuck?Go to work a different way that you’ve never gone before.” Turn off Waze and pick which way you want to go and just randomly go somewhere. Sometimes, if I’m not in a time crunch. I’m coming back from a client or something like that, I’ll just drive down the streets that I’ve never driven down before. There are streets in the San Fernando Valley — I’ve lived here 30 years — I’ve never driven down before and sometimes it’s just like “ahh, let’s take a right here.” It keeps your thinking fresh. It keeps that transition “muscle” — the flexibility muscle — toned. We know if we don’t use a physical muscle it atrophies and it makes it all the more harder to use it down the road. Same thing, to me, happens with transition and change. The less we change — the less we engage with change — the less comfortable we are with it.
Taking that different drive to work. That’s another creativity exercise. They’ll tell people sometimes, “You’re thinking is kind of stuck?Go to work a different way that you’ve never gone before.” Turn off Waze and pick which way you want to go and just randomly go somewhere. Sometimes, if I’m not in a time crunch. I’m coming back from a client or something like that, I’ll just drive down the streets that I’ve never driven down before. There are streets in the San Fernando Valley — I’ve lived here 30 years — I’ve never driven down before and sometimes it’s just like “ahh, let’s take a right here.” It keeps your thinking fresh. It keeps that transition “muscle” — the flexibility muscle — toned. We know if we don’t use a physical muscle it atrophies and it makes it all the more harder to use it down the road. Same thing, to me, happens with transition and change. The less we change — the less we engage with change — the less comfortable we are with it.
But we have the ability to change. We — that we do like variety. I’m a variety freak. I love variety. I hate having the same meals every week and all that. I want a variety of things. but there are some people who prefer more stable environment. That’s fine. For your own benefit sometimes, we need to inject a little bit of change into ourselves. Then use those opportunities — those ideas as a way of saying, “Well, I can do that.” Maybe sometimes, it’s very funny, because it’s the smallest things that can break through your thinking sometimes. I’m wearing my red power speaking socks that I always wear when Igo out to speak and sometimes just changing the color of your socks. Sometimes just changing how your brush your hair. It doesn’t — it’s not these gut wrenching, life altering, divorce-related, move to South Sea Island, changes in our life that we should feel that we’re trying to accomplish. We’re simply trying to “tickle” things a little bit.
But we have the ability to change. We — that we do like variety. I’m a variety freak. I love variety. I hate having the same meals every week and all that. I want a variety of things. but there are some people who prefer more stable environment. That’s fine. For your own benefit sometimes, we need to inject a little bit of change into ourselves. Then use those opportunities — those ideas as a way of saying, “Well, I can do that.” Maybe sometimes, it’s very funny, because it’s the smallest things that can break through your thinking sometimes. I’m wearing my red power speaking socks that I always wear when Igo out to speak and sometimes just changing the color of your socks. Sometimes just changing how your brush your hair. It doesn’t — it’s not these gut wrenching, life altering, divorce-related, move to South Sea Island, changes in our life that we should feel that we’re trying to accomplish. We’re simply trying to “tickle” things a little bit.
It’s an opportunity for you to readjust your course. To perhaps see where you’ve been on a path that is not the path for you. Which is perhaps why — layoffs are horrible because it usually has — in most cases — I would say 99% of the cases — it has nothing to do with you. A lot of us have been in that position. That project didn’t come through. That sale didn’t get made. Well, guess, what? We don’t have the work for the people we’ve staffed up to do. Take that to heart and see this truly as an opportunity for you to move beyond a company that is perhaps struggling or needs to evaluate its own priorities and evaluate your own. See this as an opportunity to get a little “kick in the butt” sometimes which we all need on many occasions and more forward.