Who Moved My Cheese, By Spencer Johnson MD; it's a book that came up this weekend in the gee-rage whilst at T.'s house. His mom was reading another book by the author and mentioned he'd also written Who Moved My Cheese. T. laughed at the title...and I thought everyone had heard of that book. He thought she was trying to be funny. So I gave him a brief synopsis and tried to shake the image of my old boss out of my head. She loved that book and encouraged us all to identify with it. And I was thinking again about it just now, when I realized, for someone who loves to speak about change, she was very adverse about it, in hindsight! I remember every meeting and every conference call and there was always something "inspirational" on the agenda about change. And yet, when I look back at what I knew of her, change was a hard thing for her to deal with. She lived in the same house in the same town and drove the same car as she had for many years. She had the same job. She had the same role through much of her career and under her she had the same staff. So, tell me again why we need to all be flexible and be able to move with change....?
On the other hand, it's me that she hired. She used to love to critique my inexperience in management and tell me I had a lot of growing to do and I had to lead change. I think she used to put that on me, because either she didn't know how, or she was afraid. I would speak up with new ideas and she would shut them down and tell me why they wouldn't work. I argued with her because she always said moving with change, for me was a weak point.
Let me tell you my friends; the only constant in our lives is change. I have moved homes 16 times in my 30-some years. I have changed towns 9 times of those 16 moves where I also had to change my entire circle of friends. I have had many jobs throughout my life, always seeking out a better life. Twice I was canned. Mostly I moved up and forward and changed everything. I've been skinny and overweight and normal and healthy and not healthy and I've quit smoking and I've started smoking and quit for years only to go back again. I've had numerous failed relationships and now hopefully a success. I've been at rock bottom and I've also been happy. And sad. And scared. And fearless. I've been routine and I fly by the seat of my pants. If I could go back to my old boss who preached change like it was going out of style, I would stand and turn in front of her a say, "You don't know me, but this IS the face of change". If she knew nothing of me at all, I do know she was wrong about one thing; I AM change.
Friends, I thought of something that was an inspiring thought on change:
Change is never easy. Change can be scary. Sometimes change seems like a bad thing. But in all my experiences in change, looking back, never has it been a negative. It may not seem like it at the time, but change is always a positive. The only exception is usually the negative choices we may make to resist changes. The harder you fight against a losing battle, the more negative results you will get.
So I patted myself on the back today. Because leaving my last job was tough on me. It was always the errors that she pointed out. She would try to be positive and have a conversation, but in the end, she needed to listen more and talk less. There was never conversation... There was always her side and I was always wrong. Or inexperienced. Or naive. Or unable to move with change. But when I look back and see that she was just as at fault, or maybe even moreso; I can hold my head up and think yes, it was time to move on. Yes I learned some things. But I can always walk away from anything and say, "it's time for change" and embrace it.
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