Time to Change is Now. Enough is Enough!

When will the pain of staying the same become greater than the perceived fear or pain of change? When is enough going to be enough for you?

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Change: What May Be driving Or Stopping You?

Perhaps you are one of so many of us that have known for a while that this isn’t the job you are meant to stay in for much longer, right? So how much longer do you need to still wait before “you know”? What still needs to happen to drive you to action? How much longer do you still have to tolerate being unrecognized, feeling stuck, bored, unchallenged, unempowered, taken for granted, without any sense of purpose of vision, not using your talents, skills and strengths? Close to burnout? Do you know that the greatest single reason people leave an organization is because of their boss? Could that be part of the problem for you too? Not much we can really do to change that, is there?

Also, do you just show up each day, each week, each month (dare I say each year?) because you have to? What would you prefer to want to, if you didn’t have to? So that you can be Leaping out of Bed?

So how do we go about changing that? I can’t tell you how many clients I have coached through this topic. Either finding ways in which we can make life tolerable while the experience of that role adds value to your resume. And / or managing the process of mapping your  interests, skills, strengths and experience onto a matrix of possible and probable opportunities. Those that excite you because of how they would allow you to really contribute and develop? And then to develop the smartest ways of going after them ?”

Change: The Roles of Strengths, Challenges, Loves and Hates

You see, this is what “The 5% That Know Why” do. “Do You Have a Plan?” is second nature to them. They set and measure progress through goals. They confidently confront and deal with change; even thrive on it.

I use an adapted version of the 4 quadrant SWOT analysis, in which we do an inventory of what  I call “Strengths, Challenges, Loves and Hates“. In the above mapping exercise we assure most of our emphasis on the Strengths and Loves content and try to restrict the Challenges and Hates to manageable proportions. The best example of the power of this came from a client that had been convinced to transfer from a 10 year contract relationship where she leveraged all her Strengths and Loves into being employed in a leadership position. I coached her about a year after this transition. A few weeks after she did this exercise, I asked her how she went. She said: “I quit”. Gulp! It made her recognize that in her employed leadership role she was full of Challenges and Hates and that she could no longer draw on her Strengths and Loves. It had started affecting her health. And so she quit and went back to what she loved doing best.

Change: Choice or Chance?

So let me challenge you right here and right now. If the above is resonating with you, and you are willing to acknowledge that you have been procrastinating on this, or you are close(r) to making a decision to change, what are you still waiting for? What is going to provide the catalyst for you to research and really explore some valid options? What will make you look back on next year differently than you did this year?

I know that you will want to do one or more of 3 things:

• Make a decision to change. Enough is enough. I am no longer going to tolerate this. The line has been drawn in the sand. Perhaps the SWOT exercise will help you?
• Set a goal in writing that you are making this change and by when. Share it with someone you trust and have them or find someone that will hold you accountable so that you can’t “chicken out”.
• Find an  Coach that will become your thinking partner, your sounding board, that will challenge and test your ideas and motivate you through the process of leveraging so many more perspectives than you can come up with on your own. And then holding you accountable.

Still unsure? That’s OK, fear is absolutely normal at this stage. Why? Fear of the unknown and how we might cope with the change it requires is the great spoiler of what could be. Are you going to focus on the price or the prize?  It’s the 5% that know why that know that courage and action overcomes fear.

Questions? Email me at