How To Change-How You Change: 5 Mental Techniques To Help You Move From ‘Here’ To ‘There’…Quitters Were in a State of Temporary Discomfort & Ceded their Purpose for the Quick Fix of the Moment. They Forgot Their Why for Being at BUD/S in the First Place

/in /by

Inherent in any personal or organizational change is the mental and emotional faculties to do so. Specifically, the skill and will to look uncertainty in the eye, slap it across the face, and say, “Get outta my way! I got this.”

Navy-SEALs-in-water

Where does such mental preparation come from? In my coaching experience, I’ve seen clients bridge the gap between certainty and uncertainty bylearning how to build mental competence. All it takes is just a tiny change of perspective to provoke the “aha!” moment that replaces inaction with “let’s do it!”

Overcoming the barriers to change first starts with identifying what those barriers are. Once you know how high the so-called wall of change looks like then you know what size ladder you’ll need to climb over it. What this translates to is self-manage. In other words, the ability to regulate your emotions is an integral part to working through any sort of change. After all, you don’t want to carry a heavier ladder than necessary, do you?

Like this Article ??  Share it !   First Sun Consulting, LLC- Outplacement/Executive Coaching Services, is Proud to sponsor/provide our ‘FSC Career Blog’  Article Below.  Over 600 current articles like these are on our website in our FSC Career Blog (https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/)  with the most updated/current articles on the web for new management trends, employment updates along with career branding techniques  .

You now can easily enjoy/follow Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with over 120K participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

  • FSC LinkedIn Network:  Over 6K+ Members & Growing ! (76% Executive Level of VP & up), Voted #1 Most Viewed Articles/Blogs, Members/Participants Worldwide (Members in Every Continent Worldwide) : Visit us @: @  http://www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc , Look forward to your participation.
  • Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

educate/collaborate/network

Look forward to your Participation !

continue of article:

Self-regulation is huge. I’ve seen executives leave meetings more fiery-eyed and flustered than some of my teammates on the battlefield getting shot at–the source of which is attributed to how one sees the problem.

How you see the problem oftentimes is the problem  (especially if you label it “problem”). With a change in perspective, you can lower the emotional fun meter from the red-zone back into that happy green zone. To do so, here are five mental techniques for how to change:

Emotional maturity. There was something we referred to in the SEAL Teams as “tactical patience,” and it was having the mental wherewithal to wait for the ideal moment of opportunity to present itself, and then… Surprise!…We’re here! Key to tactical patience is knowing what “ideal” looks like.

Impulse control. Of the 174-ish volunteers in myBUD/S (SEAL training) class, 34 of us graduated. The rest quit because they let the moment get the better of them. In other words, had a lack of impulse control. Quitters were in a state of temporary discomfort and ceded their purpose for the quick fix of the moment. They forgot their why for being at BUD/S in the first place.

Humility. For change to occur, it must be accepted, and that means letting your guard down . Many leaders espouse humility but do nothing to build it. Instead, they expect humility to suddenly flourish from some other leader. Without a demonstrable example of how to change, subordinate behavior will never take root.

Need some exercises to build your humility? How about realizing your adult, I mean, childhood…ahem…dreams of showing up to school (or work) naked? Or, you could wear a Spongebob costume for a night on the town (which I’ve done, incidentally. True story).

If neither of these ridiculous ways to build humility appeals to you, then thenext best option is to build your self-awareness. Ask yourself these questions:

  • How many times do you reference personal experience in a conversation?
  • How often do you turn the conversation back towards yourself?
  • Are you more inclined to begin conversation topics with an “I” or “you?”
  • How much talking do you do compared to other people?

If you’re in the majority/say “yes” crowd for any of these, then Spongebob it is.

Shorten the gap between quick wins. Short-term goals generate momentum, build confidence, and ensure your personal compass stays aligned towards true north . What is lesser known, however, is the advantage that minimizing the delay time in between these quick wins plays towards overcoming change.

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say the time it takes you to physically change out of your workout clothes and into your suit is 20 minutes. Condensing that time period to, say, 10 minutes affords feedback sooner on the other end. You’ll be able to identify irregularities sooner, find mishaps earlier, which means you can adapt on the fly sooner and, hence, effectuate change sooner.

Give up the driver’s seat. Control is a strong drug because it offers security and confidence. One challenge I’ve seen with coaching clients is the desire to maintain control. It’s normal to fear the uncertainty that accompanies change, so they avoid it and maintain the status quo only to stay unfulfilled because they realize they’re just perpetuating a lack of will.

To remedy this, make a list. Grab a sheet of paper, draw a vertical line down the center, and write the advantages to change in one column and the disadvantages in the other. List everything you can think of no matter how silly.

Next, rank the advantages and the disadvantages amongst themselves such that all the advantages to change are prioritized in one column, and disadvantages prioritized in the other.

Now, compare the top three advantages to the top three disadvantages. Will the world continue to spin if you choose change? Probably.

The key to overcoming change is to just start. Put another way, if you’re an astronaut flying the space shuttle, a tiny half-degree adjustment will place you on a different planet. It’s a small change, but it all adds up.

Jeff is an executive coach, speaker at the HarryWalker Agency, and a board member of  the SEAL Future Fund. Follow his daily blog at www.adaptabilitycoach.com