WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T AFRAID?

What would you do if you weren't afraid is my favourite quote from the Who Moved My Cheese book, written by Spencer Johnson. For me this speaks to the unwillingness of many to change, not because they don't know it is time to initiate a change in either their personal or professional life, but because they are afraid.

Let's face it...change is difficult. As Anatole France famously said: All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. 

Perhaps a little dramatic but it is true. I like change, always have, but even I go through a bit of a grieving process when the change is finally upon me. However, I prefer to move forward as opposed  to being stuck in the today.

This week, I met with two former employees and their stories couldn't be more different. One had just been told that his job was being eliminated at the end of the year, and the other whom I met  the next day had, after 8 years at the firm where I hired him into, accepted a role with a different company. Both of them were comfortable where they were, but the former waited until things happened to him, whilst the latter took fate into his own hands and found a new role. 

And surprisingly the gentleman who is starting a new job on December 10 is about a decade older than the one who will shortly be out of work.

So what makes people stay, beyond what I guess I'll call a natural expiry date? Comfort and fear of the unknown. Every person who I know or who I have encountered, who have been relieved of their duties, didn't quite like the environment or work anymore, but stayed because, well I guess it's "the devil you know." Even though they were no longer passionate about their work, they stayed, and well, then the "fates" as it were caught up to them.

You spend more of your waking hours at work than you do at home, so if you think you should settle for comfortable, I say really? Aren't you just dying by inches if you aren't getting charged up every day you go to work, knowing you have a great culture, a great group of people you are working with, you are making a positive difference and you are having fun? 

I need passion in my life -- doesn't matter if it is professional or personal. Just settling is not in my nature. It has resulted in me making many difficult choices in my life, but I made them before a) they were made for me; or b) before I settled into a "good enough" mindset.

So back to my tale of two former employees. I know the one who is losing his job, will find another within the next six months. I also know that when he does, he is going to think back and say why didn't I do this sooner. Because this is the story that I've heard over and over and over again from many. And the other? Well, good for him, willing to take a chance on change in his mid-fifties!

Don't let things happen to you, make them happen. And ask yourself, What would you do if you weren't afraid!