December 2, 2010 – by Dan McArthur
WHAT WE ARE NOT CHANGING, WE ARE CHOOSING! David Richo
December is a great month to evaluate personal wins and losses of the year and begin to imagine how we might change the game in 2011. Most of us have the same response to this statement; it is hard to conceive that we actually choose our self-limiting behaviors but we do, consciously or subconsciously. Years and sometimes decades of drifting on the current of life, like a leaf carried by the will of the river, can deliver us to places we’d rather not be.
Self-responsibility is a powerful stance. Resignation of responsibility is comfortable and convenient, but it creates weakness, vulnerability and uncertainty. The act of choosing to own ones current life situation leads us into a greater capacity to act then ever thought possible. To move out from under the circumstances and stand accountable is liberating.
Change can be stressful, though typically a good stress. The path of change leads us through humble places of acknowledging our incompleteness. This can sometimes feel risky in the workplace. The risk we feel is connected to our view of competence.
A definition of competence or competency is the ability to do something well or to a required standard. Nowhere is perfection mentioned. In fact, a solid case can be made that change and growth are a prescribed aspect of competence.
So as you step into the last month of 2010 and move toward resolutions of 2011, resolve to approach your need for change as a bold statement of future greatness. When we can hold our brokenness in one hand and our brilliance in the other at the same time, we are moving straight toward our very best self.
Dan McArthur
