“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ~Leo Tolstoy
On the cusp of implementing healthcare reform, we all anticipate change. Change requires us to shift our perspective, to innovate and to adapt. It involves taking risks and often requires that we navigate in uncharted territory without a map. Change is constant and seems to be accelerating, leaving many of us with change fatigue.
Resistance to change is natural. Change pulls us out of our comfort zone. Healthcare places increasing demands with shrinking resources. As we juggle multiple balls, we can’t imagine adding another for fear that they will all tumble down. When asked to take on a new challenge, we may experience an immediate knee jerk reaction of, “I can’t!”
In a recent presentation on change, Melinda Bowles encouraged we consider a different response. Rather than, "I can't", to step back and say, “How can we?” Asking a question rather than imposing a directive on ourselves or others opens a window to possibility. Perhaps, an answer is to let go of balls that are no longer useful to receive more helpful ones.
Always, change seeks our willingness to see differently.
Before we can embrace change, it is helpful to honor what is ending. Unfortunately, our tendency is to just move on to the next project at hand. We seldom take time to grieve endings and reverence life's changes. One simple way to do this is with a ceremony or ritual. In an effort to acknowledge changes at my work, we plan to offer caregivers a blessing of their hands ceremony and a values commissioning affirmation.
A story comes to mind that was once shared on this Journal. It goes something like this, “An explorer was on an expedition in Africa. He was on a very tight schedule, so he hired a handful of local men to help him carry his equipment. He and his team hurried through the jungle. They raced onward for three days. At the end of the third day, the men sat down and would not move. The explorer urged them to get up, telling them of the time pressure he was under to reach his designation before a certain date. Still, they refused to move. He could not understand this and after much persuasion, one of the native men told him, “We have moved too quickly to reach here; now we need to wait here to give our spirits a chance to catch up with us”. ~Author Unknown
Rather than take time to let our spirits catch up with us, we rush about hoping to get more done. The faster our pace the greater the probability we will make a mistake. We all know that it takes a great deal more energy to fix a mistake than to do it right the first time. Have you ever heard the saying, “go slow to go fast?” We owe it to ourselves to notice our patterned behaviors. Increasing self-awareness enables us to grow and to develop our natural gifts. If we make time daily for our spirits to catch up we may find we can accomplish our work with a heightened sense of well being and peacefulness.
Change soars on the wings of hope. Afer all, “If nothing ever changed, would there be butterflies?” ~Author Unknown
~liz Sorensen Wessel
I share this video below, which illustrates nature's changing beauty.
