A few days ago, as I briskly walked the Vancouver Seawall, a young couple ran passed me with the elegance and confidence of two gazelles. A few steps behind me, a young mother held the hand of a toddler learning to walk alongside her. That’s when I thought, I am living the Riddle of the Sphinx. You know how it goes…
Embracing Change
“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”
Anatole France
I have been reading and re-reading the comments to The Change Equation: The Beginning. My deepest thanks goes to all those in our brilliant and discerning blogger community who joined the dialogue. Your humour, joy and wisdom have added so much to this discussion and to my personal understanding. It appears that the change equation will have a series of iterations.
“If I see any more signs on the walls of my workplace that tell me to be the change, I cannot be held accountable for what I may say.”
That came from a very good friend. She’s intelligent, strong and full of cheerful humour. I knew exactly what she meant. I want to be the change – my way – not at the whim of a business mantra that dictates the terms of change. Brave words, but here is the situation: If our world is experiencing the strong winds of exponential change, we can be certain that we are being buffeted by those same air currents. Words and phrases like productivity enhancements, strategic direction, and robust execution are bandied around as if we were dots on a graph, or a number in an equation. And it was this line of thinking that gave me my “change” equation. I was attending one of those embrace the new seminars, scribbling my notes on paper, when my pen stopped in mid-air, before landing on the paper to write, in bold strokes the equation: N + t = Y.
No + time = Yes
I knew that by the end of the seminar, the majority would be unhappy with the reorganization, but it wouldn’t be long before these same people would accept and happily acclimatize to a new environment. We will change, but we first say “no” to fresh ideas. Even those amazing (and often annoying) souls, who seem to accept everything with cheerful gratitude, must undergo a series of decisions before plunging headlong into the unknown.
“Once in awhile,
Right in the middle of an ordinary life,
Love gives us a fairy tale.”
Anonymous
A special thanks to all my blogger friends who joined the Wedding Dialogues. Your thoughtful comments and “likes” were much appreciated.
The Wedding Dialogues would not be complete without an epilogue containing some final thoughts on transitions.
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