Love a Little Change. IT ADDS UP!

Self-Assessment Quiz – True or False:

• I am brave.
• I seek out new opportunities in my job and within my career.
• I boldly walk through open doors, even if I stumble upon them accidentally.
• I am open to relocating for my job.

Well, grasshopper, we’ve reached the end of February. We’re a little less than 60 days into a new year. How’re you doing? I’m hoping you’ve purchased my  Is a Great Year for Eating Pink Elephants Vision Board Planner and have been checking small bites off your list of things to do toward accomplishing your goals every day. If not, it’s never too late to start! Fill me in with comments below on your progress!

This year (for real, for real!) is about change. Whew! I’ve made some major changes. Like getting this website up and running. Making sure you’ve got content that will help move you to your next level of best, in not one but – count them – SIX areas of your life. Providing workshops for those of you who need more. And it has not been easy. Lawrdy! But then change rarely is. But it is CRUCIAL to growth.

Some of y’all (like those of you who may not have answered TRUE to the majority of questions on the quiz above) are afraid to make changes, especially at work. You take the same route to the office, sit in the same chair, use the same coffee mug, and have lunch at the same eatery … each and every day. C’mon now! Switch it UP! There is nothing wrong with having a schedule, being consistent, or enjoying stability. What I’m saying is, you need to stir the waters a bit in order to grow at work. You cannot be a change-hater!

This Friday, before you power down your computer, why not make a few simple changes in your work space? Reposition the Gumby and Pokey tchotchkes on your desk. Swap the photos of the ones you love with some you took over the holidays. Move some of those Post-it notes. Better yet, purge things you don’t need, and finish some to-do lists so that you can throw out those Post-its. Here’s another one. Look at your desk as though today were your last day. What things would you quickly and easily chuck? Are you evah going to wear any of those shoes under your desk? If not, scoop them up and take them to the Goodwill. What about all those books collecting dust? Can they be donated to a local nonprofit organization or a hospital?

Keep going. Change your coffee mug! Opt for one that makes you smile even when there isn’t coffee in it. Reposition your computer. Change the lighting in your space. On Monday, take a different route, bus, or train to work. Make eye contact with and smile at people you meet en route. Heaven forbid, strike up a conversation with a stranger. Bring in a plant to help bring oxygen into your space, and make it a goal to keep it alive. Do something that will help refresh your mindset for the next sixty days.

What’s the point? Just getting you into the practice of making changes. Once you start making small changes, it gets easier to make bigger ones. Sometimes change is thrust upon you, and other times you have the option of easing into it. If you are easing into making career changes this year by embracing the littlest of changes, when you do get that new job or promotion, your brain will already be in acceptance/transition mode. In fact, once you’ve programmed it to look for changes, it’ll be more prone to seek out that job or promotion on autopilot. How cool is that?

Be sure to include clues on your vision board about the change you’re working toward. If you want a corner office by next year, include a picture of the chair you want in your office. Or, heck, go all out and get a special “Corner Office Calendar” that you use to mark off the days, each cross-out getting you closer to the deadline date you identified back in January when you set your SMART goals.

And while you’re at it, walk around your office floor with an attitude of change. Chat with people you normally ignore. You never know, they might know of someone who’s leaving the role you have your eye on. Coincidence? Perhaps. But strange things happen when you embrace change. You start to notice it everywhere!