Now What?® Coaching

from Laura Berman Fortgang

Laura Berman Fortgang

COMMITMENT In A WORLD OF FAST CHANGE

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by Now What?® Coaching Founder, Laura Berman Fortgang

In our short-attention-span, instant-gratification, electronic world, it gets increasingly harder for people to stick with something.  Everything changes so quickly—our amazing new gizmo will become obsolete in two years or less, as will our initiatives in the workplace or at home. So many changes, at ever increasing speeds, makes it hard to commit to anything!

Why bother?

Well, there’s the obvious.  Commitment will get you where you want to go. Put on blinders, see nothing else, stay put and don’t wander.  Stay on task, stay focused.  The tougher part of commitment, however, is settling in on why one should commit—to anything.  If it’s going to change next month, isn’t it futile?

How does one commit in a hailstorm of change?  There are two ways: know where you’re headed and be loyal to a way of being instead of an actual task.  When you have a big picture of what you want to accomplish, it is easier to commit despite setbacks and changes.  Is it a 50-year marriage?  An income amount?  A certain company or college you want to get in to?  Stay loyal to that picture and be willing to do whatever it takes and change as many times as you have to to get there.

Secondly, decide (latin root: cut off all other options) WHO you want to be on this journey to the big picture.  Stressed and harried or collected and determined?  Choose a way of being that will fuel the journey to the big picture.  How you behave is much more in your control than all the circumstances are.  So choose carefully, and live that way of being the way a sailboat would catch the wind to get where it wants to go.

This reminds me of the Harry Potter series.  Harry’s big picture—make the most of his gifts of wizardry.  Harry’s way of being—take the high road, use his magic for good.  It doesn’t mean he didn’t have to pull a few punches, because he did.  However, he prevailed to conquer evil.  He had no idea of how he’d get there.  He had to change at every turn and be agile and quick.  He could not stay the same.  Only become better and better versions of himself.

That is what is being asked of you now.  To keep fine tuning the best of what you have to give and use it to it’s greatest advantage. For then and only then, will we make any sense of the unpredictability of change.

Five Women, Five Wake-Up Calls, Five Dreams Pursued

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An attorney who tapped her childhood roots to incorporate more creativity.

A reporter who learned how to say “no thank you” and returned to school for a degree in social work.

A publicist who decided it was time to start taking risks in her life.

A food editor who was drawn to the field of acupuncture.

A Wall Street sales trader who realized she “needed” to be a yoga instructor.

While each is unique, these five stories contain the common thread of listening to what’s calling you and taking a risk to do something different.  It’s interesting, too, that the work involved with making these changes –going back to school or figuring out how to make the numbers work– didn’t dissuade them from taking action.  That’s what happens when the passion is strong enough and the work is meaningful.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

“Career Transformations: How 5 Women Found Their Dream Jobs.”