WEEK 102: CHANGE IS CONSTANT...KEEP YOUR PRINCIPLES

The only thing that is constant is change.    Heraclitus

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): As many of you know I recently packed up my family from Brazil (5 great years!) and moved all across the world to China. 

A lot of people said I was CRAZY, when I told them we were going to move and I honestly brushed it off as my wife and I had already made a similar move whenwe moved from China to Brazil in 2012.

Now, I will be honest. This move has been a little...well, a lot harder. 

Why?

Well two kids first of all, but the fact we moved to a country where none of us know the language, where to get certain necessities, and household items.

This was highlighted this week when my son needed to go to the ER, as he had a fever over 102 (39.5 for you metric peeps) and a skin irritation the size of a small plate in a not so comfortable part of his body.

This was on top of getting used to a new job, new boss, new way of working.....essentially everything NEW.

Cray, cray! 

I was OVERWHELMED! My mind was going through all the scenarios of what might happen and at a loss at my new job as I did not know how everything connected....

Then it came to me through all the chaos...a small voice in the back of my mind, then a louder one, then a deafening SHOUT!

YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF HEAVY CHANGE!

This centered me and I was able to take a deep breath and reflect on what I have learned through the LYP about dealing with change. 

Change is an ironic thing, as it is one thing we desperately want, but also something we avoid at all times.

But, like the quote says above....change is really the only constant we can be sure of. 

Now, change brings with it many things. One thing for certain is the unknown. This lack of clarity produces doubt, anxiety, and fear, which in turn make you question your actions and might even cement you where you stand. 

That is where I was this week! Frozen in one spot, swimming in all of my doubts and fears. 

I literally had no other space in my mind other than what was different and what could go wrong. This produced a projection of insecurity and doubt.

After my wife arrived home with my son's ordeal, I took a deep breath and went back to my principles and went down my progression.

1. EMBRACE problem solving. That means using uncomfortable feelings to your advantage. Either you are feeling doubt, anxiety, and fear as your body is ready for action, you are getting more o2 to the brain, or you need to make room and analyze inputs. 

BINGO...I needed to release these negative thoughts and make room for the amazingness of this move. Also, I needed to analyze my daily actions using the Pareto principle to see what 20% of my actions produced 80% of my results, and then focus on them.

2. Apply first principles. 

This is where you break something down to its fundamental elements and then ask what is true?

Is moving a family half way across the world going to produce massive change? Yes.

Will it take some time to acclimate? Yes.

Have yo done this before? Yes.

Do you know how to create sustainable change. Yes.

3. Use Pareto principle to Identify actions to move forward.

Using the Pareto principle I was able to eliminate the actions which caused me to doubt myself and allow me to focus on moving forward. I am not going to list them all, but I will provide one example.

At work I moved from Google and Windows to Microsoft and Apple. I was stuck trying to figure it all out...swimming in doubt. Then I identified I can improve by learning one thing at a time (Aggregation of Marginal gains).

4. Iterate and focus on inputs to make progress.

For the example above, I learned something new everyday about Microsoft and Apple and then just kept doing it. Actually learned about 5-6 things week already!

5. Measure, report to acelerate towards your ultiam outcome. 

I added tasks to measure my actions I decided to take and will analyze my results to see if they will help me make strides moving forward!

AsI write this post. I already feel calmer and know that it will all work out!

Now, in your life on the path to achieving massive success and achieving your dreams you will encounter heavy change and all the elements which come with it!

Use my principles to help turn those uncomfortable feelings to your advantage so you can accelerate towards achieving things never thought imagineable!

What Went Well?

Weekly task completed in the face of MASSIVE CHALLENGES.

What is something we can improve? What actions can we take next week?

Appreciate more expect less. This will allow me to be PRESENT and enjoy all the great things in our lives.

What is something to avoid next week?

EXPECTING everythign to turn out a certain way!

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PLANNING (Implementation Intention):  You will follow through 2X to 3X more likely to complete your weekly task than you normally would just by filling in the following statement.

I plan to complete the weekly task [day] at [time] in [location]. 

A reminder you might have to use multiple Implementation Intentions in order to follow through.

EXECUTION (strategies used):  From week to week, I use a combination of many strategies. There are always some which are used more than others depending on what comes up, but I wanted to offer a link to all them at once. 

My advice is to identify the I CAN'T statement you tell yourself during the most. Then find a strategy below the statement which resonates with you, and then start using it. 

Enjoy!

STRATEGY LIST