If You Could...

If you could change one thing, what would the future look like? This isn't some big philosophical question. It's a question that we ought to ask ourselves or those we interact with over and over and over again. It's a great way to make some sort of incremental change for the better.

As you walk out of the meeting, ask yourself, "If I changed one thing about that meeting, what might the next meeting that I have about that look like?" As you finish a project, ask yourself, "What one thing might I change about this project and what might things look like the next time I tackle something of similar size and scope?" And what about our personal lives? If we would change just one thing we frequently do, what might the result be the next time?

I've shared with you before that I've been working out with a professional who has developed a system of exercise which develops functional strength, flexibility, agility and prevents injury. He believes that since learning can never be static, neither can a system of exercise. He and his wife really understand their business and work hard to ensure that all of their clients get what I call "the most out of the experience". All of the exercises that we do focus on core muscle strength and flexibility. He changes the exercises every two weeks, so you're constantly "starting over". The technical term for this is muscle confusion and what is almost magic about it is that anyone can do it, the variety keeps it interesting and it's really, really hard but "doable" for all ages and body types. Because of the intensity of each movement, it illustrates for me that one simple change can really make a huge difference. No one starts the program thinking they will be going from zero to 100, and lose 15 pounds in one month. Rather, they know going in that it is the constant action of pushing a little more each time, training session by training session, that will have an impact on their lives. They'll look back and be surprised at the changes that occurred.

As I've worked in technology for the past decade, I find very few people who understand the power of incremental change. I encourage them to examine the power of asking themselves, "If there was just one thing I changed about the way I'm doing something, what would the future look like? What would I get as a result?" They don't often buy in quickly. None of us do. Maybe it's because we've had so much of the "reach for the stars" stuff. We believe that to make big changes, we need to "go for the gusto", have "big audacious goals" and all that other stuff, which certainly sounds a lot more exciting than the proverbial taking one step at a time to reach a goal. Now that doesn't mean that every one thing you do has to be a small thing, but it means that it's okay if it is a small thing. My experience has proven to me that if I get each client that I work with to agree to make one change and then stop and think about what that one change resulted in, I'm doing the best I can as a consultant.

So I hope you'll not look at what I'm suggesting as a sit down and do it once sort of thing. It's not. It's a do every day, do it often kind of thing. If you keep asking the question, "What one thing could I change?", frequently enough over the next week or two, it's possible that it will start to become a habit. Pick something like meetings. Hold whatever type of meeting you need to have. Be it a brief one-on-one or a long one with lots of people. The minute it's over, ask yourself, "If I could change one thing about that meeting, what will the future look like as a result?" By the way, future is one of those power words. It's kind of like the word free, whether we admit it or not, most of us can't resist it. Future conjures up positive thoughts, so it's a must-use word when you ask yourself the question. One word of caution though...you'll have more successes if you keep the future short. It could be the next encounter that you have with someone waiting outside your door. It could be next week. It could be by the end of the month to find future. Don't let the future get too far out in front. And if there was one thing I could change for the next Newsletter, it'd be to know that you got some value from my musings. I look forward to hearing the results of your efforts or that you think I'm nuts. Either one is OK!

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