How do you prepare or equip yourself to do something, which you seldom have done before? The topic per se, looks like something which we may be reluctant to tread in reality. If you are also one among those who have such a mindset, all I can say is – just relax, and read on.
It is something which you have encountered so many times in Life, and as a matter of fact, which you are conversant and comfortable with. You and I have done this, all over our lives till now, and just that, we may not have seen things in that perspective.
Life is all about taking up new roles and assignments, as dictated by what we are, and what we do, at a particular point, in our long and remarkable journey. In essence, most things which we encounter in such a journey of ours, will be unique, different, and something which we have never done earlier. Now why do I say this, and why a long winding muse? I say this, to impress upon a very important point that we all need to bear in us.
Most things which we have to do, in Life, and its various facets, will be which we have not done earlier. Once we realize this fact, it will also make us feel comfortable in attempting to do what we have never done earlier. Be it something very important, or something trivial and mundane. As successful people, we must constantly be ready to try out new things in Life, be it at home, at work, or just about anywhere.
Change is the only constant thing in most phases of our life journey, and the moment we resist such changes, we are only setting us up for failure or suboptimal performance. The moment you have fear within to change, you are setting up your mind to be ill prepared, for some event or phase, in which things will happen only if we chose to change the approach.
Consider a simple illustration – the things you do as a student or in college are very different, and the moment you graduate out of college, you have to change your persona completely, and be all set to be a great worker. A whole lot of personality trait needs at work are different, from what you are as a student. But, the moment you are placed through the campus, or find a job of your seeking, you change yourself, almost like it is second nature. Things like punctuality, willingness to do team work, integrity, constantly striving to excel, etc are all in full play, almost to the point that, you did not even realize you had all these skills and competencies within you.
If you just sit back, and run through a whole lot of such changes you underwent in your life until today, you will be plainly surprised at this fact – you were always willing to embrace change, and every time you did that, you did so with ease, and morphing into the exact person made fit for the role. You were a toddler, kid, adolescent, college student, workman, a life partner, a Dad or Mom… it goes on and on.
In all these multiple hats that you were destined to don, the only common thread was – you did something that you did never before; not just that, you did so with grace, elan and remarkable ease.
Now to the question – how to do something that you have never done before? The base starting point is for you to completely be comfortable with embracing change, and bearing in mind that you have done this, a dozen or more times earlier. Tell your mind and body, that change is the only constant, and that is how your life has been. You stand where you are in Life, right now, and today, only because of the Change related qualities and DNA that are deeply imbibed in you.
This mindset, which you have cultivated over a long long time in Life, is like the hardware, which carries the change/innovation related software, and puts in into action, as and when the need arises. The software runs almost all the soft skills and personal traits that may have to be put to work, in every new situation. Wherever there are a set of skills that may be lacking in the person, like there is a upgrade in version or what is known as a patch, Life and the juncture in which we are throws up all the situations and opportunities that are needed to inculcate any learning and wisdom that may be essential to tide over, what is seemingly a unique situation, aka a new thing we do in Life.
The moment there is rigidity in our mind, then that gets converted to what is widely seen as fear, to encounter any new situation. For those who have this as a part of the wiring in the brain, there needs to be some amount of training and development, to prepare the person to change. Unless we change, we perish, and this is true almost at every single decisive point in Life, As long as the mind is open to receive and adapt to any changes, then the rest is just a matter of quick adaptation to the specific situation, and taking needy steps as a part of the change process. This happens rather by default, once the mind and body of the person is tuned to any change that comes in the face of a new situation.
Yet, there are a few things that we have to bear in us, on the nature of change itself, to master it. The first thing is to acknowledge to you, time and again, that change is in the anvil, and there are times when you can control the pace of change, while most times, that is not in your control. To be cognizant of this, will make you alert on how to handle the change and in what pace. In the case where you can’t control, the only way forward is to embrace and adapt.
Any change causes a certain degree of stress, and it has to be handled in the way we handle any type of stress in life. Exercise, Eat right, Sleep well, share with friends, near and dear, speak out your feelings etc – these are the part of any healthy routine, and they really help stress management, if you practice all this regularly.
The bottom line – when you want to do something new, just realize that you have mastered the process of change, in so many instances in life, until now. With that as the framework, all other skills and competencies will fall in place.
Only change is permanent, and more importantly, only a series of changes bring in phenomenal success in Life.