Change

In the air? Change. I hear so many stories right now of people and organizations changing. Some embrace the change while others resist it.

There are a few things I have noticed and want to share with you. Those that embrace change are willing to have a shift in the story they are telling about themselves. Those that resist are attached to a story they have told before.

In the end -- and by that I mean in the larger frame of life and existence -- we are each and all on a journey. This is the story of our lives. It is not necessarily the story that we tell people when we meet them or promote as the evolution of our business or career. That is a small story of our perception and dreams. That is the story we want or the one we choose to remember. The story of our journey is the one that is happening to us everyday whether we choose it or not. It is the story of our evolution as a person, as an organization, or as a species.

When you honor the story of your evolution, you become flexible to telling a new story about your goals and dreams. You open yourself to change, to responding to a changing environment and changing relationships. If you attach yourself to the story of your perception and dreams, then you stagnant in a vision created at a particular moment in time responding to that moment, those perceptions, needs, and circumstances. When this happens, you become attached to earning money, getting a return on the projects you invest in, and keeping the relationships you have. You take a risk on those dreams and goals turning out in the way that you want them to. When you release that attachment, and instead choose the journey of your own evolution, then no matter how things turn out, it is part of your journey for you to learn from and become from.

When you attach to your journey, there is no failure. There is only feedback. There is only learning. There is only becoming. No matter what happens it adds to your experience, your being, and your story. You can loose those you love, and it becomes about the experience you had with them rather than about the loss of future experiences with them. You can loose a treasured dream, and it becomes about the process of dreaming and manifesting your goals. You learn.

While you may think this is hard, you do it all the time. Let’s say Jane is running her own business. The economy lags, and Jane has to let go of her business to go work for someone else. She can be attached to her identity as a sole-proprietor or she can perceive that this business was one phase she needed to go through to become Jane today. Without that experience she would not be who she is with her current capabilities, perspective, and knowledge. If she is attached to her identity as a sole-proprietor, she will suffer depression for loosing that identity. If, and more likely, when, she identifies herself as Jane, with her unique abilities and her own journey through life, she will be released from her depression and embrace her new life. And it is in our nature as people to, at some point, reflect on our experiences and believe that it all happened for the better, that we could not be who we are today without things working out the way they have.

What are you attached to? What identity are you holding on to? Where is the distinction between your identity and your roles? What is the story you are telling yourself about your past, present, and future? How is that different than the evolving story of your life?

Invest in the journey of your life and reap a life of immeasurable returns. For if you invest, as many of us do, in the story you want to tell yourself and the goals associated with that story, you do indeed take big risks. Some of which will pay off, and some of which will not. Mitigate your risk. Bank on something guaranteed to give your huge returns. Invest in your journey. Invest in the experience of your life wherever it takes you.