TIME MANAGEMENT IS MIND MANAGEMENT
How do you keep up with the speed of change?
If you are like most people, your January has been off to a quick start and you might feel like you are holding your breath because things are going even faster than last year. That's probably true.
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva from the Reinvention Academy shared with me today that more than 20% of companies reinvent every year or less. That's a lot of change. Actually, that calls for a change culture, where change is a mindset that's at the core of how we work.
Before you think, oh no, I can't do that. Pause on that for a moment and let me remind you that The Self-Care Mindset frame-work (and book) is all about change and growth. It's about cultivating a mindset that embraces change as the foundation for how we thrive.
The thing we need to rethink is time management, because change tends to feel like doing more and running faster. Instead, it's about pausing to harness our attention and ask questions that get us unstuck.
Photo by Stefan Moertl on Unsplash
WHY CHANGE IS CHALLENGING
Unlearning old habits is the key to harnessing a mindset that allows us to be more adaptable and agile. The resistance to change is what slows us down.
There's a saying that what we resist persists. Meaning it hurts. You could argue that's how change feels when we resist what is happening. Now we do need a moment to land before we can embark on a different way of thinking, engaging and acting because simply reacting faster is not always better.
Reacting is based on old habits and ways of doing things and that's the challenge of managing our time. Learning something new takes time and when change is a constant in our lives, which by the way it is, even when we don't really notice, then it can feel like we are wasting a lot of time learning something new, only to have to change how we do things soon again.
That brings me to why we resist change. It triggers our discomfort with not knowing what's ahead, which triggers our need to stay safe, which in turn activates the FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt. It's normal! There is nothing wrong with you for feeling this way and maybe that can help you embrace it instead of resisting it?
CHANGE TAKES CURIOSITY, NOT CONFIDENCE
We often think that the uncertainty and discomfort need confidence to get through, but we cannot go straight from feeling unsafe to feeling confident. Now we might "just" ourselves and say things like, "I can do it, I just need to be more confident."
The thing is, we know when we are not being authentic and honest with ourselves and it creates more doubt and confusion because it comes from false positivity.
Leaning into change is not about being confident, it's about being curious. By focusing on what's possible, we change the way our entire biology reacts to change, we come out of survival mode and we tap into our growth mindset.
It takes pause, acknowledge how you feel, accept the circumstance for what it is, and then ask: what do I need so that I can learn more about this challenge?
This is my AAA process (which you can learn more about in the book) and it helps you move from fear to action. It's also a way to be far more gentle with yourself and instead of pushing yourself to change, you unlock your human advantage to be more adaptable and agile.
So, instead of wasting our precious time wishing things were different or boosting ourselves up in a way that's not sustainable, let's pause on harnessing our mindset for change, faster.
