Change Is Constant, How Do We Steer It To Our Favour?

New year is always associated with new resolutions, aims and goals. Nothing wrong with that. The world will continue to change whether we like it or not. The question is what do we don so that it revolves to our favour and we achieve all the goals which we target.

The change drivers may not be changing, Society, Economy, Technology, Environment and Politics, but the elements within those drivers could be changing as well. This requires us to know what the those elements which are changing before we develop our response or figuring out how to benefits from those changes.

The key word is we need to strategise and DO SOMETHING. While that sound very logical and many people do have ideas what to pursue, the challenge is whether we have the discipline to follow through and do what we plan to do.

To make it easier for us to act later, we should start by identifying the goals which we want to achieve. Then we should detail out the steps which are required.

If we back to the wisdom of Einstein "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" then there should be new efforts in our "to-do list" for this year compared to the year before.

To accept the reality that what worked (or we thought worked) may not be working in the future is not easy. What more when those beliefs provide us with some advantages, for example false comfort. We may not realise that by holding to those beliefs we are left behind by people who are more open to review their thoughts and willing to take risks in doing things differently.

It would also be easier if we group these action plans into 4 categories:

1. What are the new things which we need to do?
2. What are the old things which we need to stop doing?
3. What are the old things which we need to do more?
4. What are the old things which we need to do less?

With such clarity, if would be easier to allocate resources and exert efforts in pursuing all the goals which we set. Otherwise, after a while, all the old habits will drag us back to doing the old stuff and steering us backwards.

The other part is about assessing progress. This is more difficult as we could be bias towards seeing things in a more favourable ways then accepting what our performance really is. Do we need someone external to judge us? Perhaps. If we are not honest ourselves, then we need someone honest to show whether we are progressing, not moving or even digressing!

It is not too late for me to wish all of you happy new year (there is another new year coming soon - the blessings of being in Malaysia) and I pray that all our goals would be achieved and we are able to steer the changes around us to our favour.