If I’m Unhappy With The Way Things Are, Why Can’t I Change?
We join others – organizations, friend groups, and like-minded communities – for a shared vision. We want to make a difference in the world – or at least in ourselves. Why don’t our best intentions consistently result in the change we hope for? There’s a huge barrier to positive transformation – one that continually makes change hard. This looming barricade to our success is comprised of our own beliefs and assumptions. We want to influence positive change, but our beliefs and assumptions continually pull us back. And unless we make a change to them, we won’t stop being tugged away from that vision of a better future. And here’s the…
Change is Hard
I was a competitive swimmer in high school. My coach encouraged me to become a distance swimmer – which is still an appropriate metaphor for my life. There was a joke that I was last off the starting blocks and first to the wall: slow starts, fast turns, strong finishes, building perseverance and endurance. Thoughts to revisit another time. When I switched to distance swimming, Coach Casci decided I must change my stroke. If you’ve ever been an athlete or a musician, you know a change like this is hard. It was so hard. His coaching ignited a series of personal changes in me. First, I hated him. Only for…
Becoming Transformers
In the 1980s, the Japanese playmaker Takara launched a series of toys called the Transformers. Shortly after that, the Transformers film series was released, generating a global sensation and taking us on a journey through an out-of-this-world story. You might know the story. There is war in another galaxy far, far away between the Opticons and the Decepticons. (Not too hard to figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, is it?) They bring their war to planet Earth. To continue the warring, they need to inhabit other bodies, so they take the forms of vehicles. They become working cars and fire engines and helicopters.…
