Friday, April 27, 2007

Key Factor for Change

A group of us were discussing the well known guru's of change and amongst them was Tony Robbins and in particular his book Awaken the Giant Within. Several of the group had varying degrees of success in following the program he advocates in his book and we were telling each other what we got out of it and why we felt it had not worked.

Some had a large list of reasons and take always and some said they got nothing out of it, it was just a waste of time. When it came to my turn I said I had got two things from the book.

  1. A great question: How can I use this?
  2. That change depended on my willingness to do something differently.

As to why it didn't work for me; I said that I was not Tony Robbins.

We can sometimes forget when embarking on a program of change that no program can specifically address our issues on managing change. We are unique in that no one else has exactly the same physical, mental, emotional and spiritual mix as we do.

It's like playing the game follow the leader as they walk through high snow drifts. No matter how hard we try; we end up with snow filled socks. Yet we expect that it will be different when are making changes in our lives.

Reading or listening to self-help programs just ask the questions how can we use this and how willing are we to do what they tell us. If it doesn't make sense to us then the willingness to try will at best be luke warm.

Remember the how is up to us.

10 conversations:

Unknown said...

To change is to create - and creation is a process that can not happen without pain.
It's difficult to change - sometimes out of fear and sometimes out of sheer inertia.
But to stay the same is to stagnate and that's death!
I personally find it very difficult to change the physical aspect of life [my timetable etc] mentally evolving is easier as that doesn't take as much discipline.
Unfortunately I'm not a disciplined person - and thats one area that I am just unable to change :(

Peter Haslam said...

Who says you need to be disciplined if you are accomplishing your goals what else is there. Thank you for your addition to the conversation

Franco said...

Hi..thanks for coming by to my blog, http://francoyong.blogspot.com. Your blog is very interesting. I like it and has mark at to watch it in whenever I wish to. I also note your writing about Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins is practitioner of NLP. However in this seminar, he does not provide the tools for change. He speaks about change and motivate the participants. Even the participants went home not equipment with the tools to transformation. NLP has a wide-ranging tool-box for transformation eg such removing limiting beliefs, setting future outcomes and future pacing, removing negative anchors and installing positive ones, meta-states, circles of excellence, 6-steps reframing, and whole lots more, etc.

Tony Robbins are good and the weakness is that he never equipment participants with the techniques.

Just my thoughts and I hope to invite feedbacks from you and those reading this comments.

Best regards,

Franco

Peter Haslam said...

Yes franco NLP is another tool (program) for change that someone may use for assisting them in making changes. But again the point is that people need to agree it makes sense for them otherwise it would not be successful and not all people are successful using the NLP program.

surjit singh said...

Change is inevitable.people agree or may not agree for voluntary change.Nature and circumatances will change them.Then they feel unconscious shocks.A good post.

Peter Haslam said...

Yes i agree surjit. Good comment

Anonymous said...

The best change comes from within, and when you are ready, hopefully a good teacher/good tools arrive.

Once upon a time, I knew I had to make some serious changes, but only when the right tools were presented me, did I feel ready to proceed.

For what it is worth, the tool that helped me was the word "No!" No, I am not going to let this get me down, No, I am going to make this work. It was a short and very cheap seminar and the tool still works to this day.

Peter Haslam said...

We all need our lodestone, rabbits foot or mini mantra to keep us from going off track. Good comment Ed thanks

Sam Chan said...

Hi Peter,

I hope the following quotes can add some insight:

"No worthwhile book shows its best face in first reading. It requires several. Doubly and triply true of proverbs. Every time we read them we see something we missed before."

"My problem was I kept reading books on leadership and excellence and management when I should have been working."

Sam Chan

Peter Haslam said...

Good perspective Sam thanks for the comment