Photo credit – Poodar Chu via unsplash.com

Are you interested in being the best person you can be? Well that probably means having constant change in the spirit of continuous improvement. Do I hear you groan? Personal change is hard. Have you been leading a changeless life? Here are some ideas that might move you into action. 

Lifelong learning
Many of us understand the need for ongoing development in our work and professional life. Take Monsieur Controleur as an example. Last year, he completed his level 4 APSI Alpine certificate. He is now “full cert” but in his mind, the learning never stops. He will go to every training session he can, to keep on working on his skiing. Some of his colleagues though, say to me, “No I’m not going, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!”

I know different. Do you? I wrote about old dogs and new tricks in one of my early posts: Are we ever or never too old to learn? As a learning professional, I am particularly interested in lifelong learning, what enhances it and what gets in its way.

Learning means change
What it takes though, is a willingness to consider change. The hardest change is personal change. We develop habits, become comfortable with a fixed way of doing things and resist having to go through the discomfort of doing things differently. There is a way though.

Marshall Goldsmith – a coach to senior executives and author of several books on coaching and personal change, suggests that the worst thing you can do is lead a changeless life. He provides some ideas about how to address this in this article and video clip.

Small steps
Marshall’s idea is try with something small. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. See if the change improves things. Then perhaps do some more. And so, the personal change journey begins.

Growth mindset
Maintaining the self-belief that you can achieve the change you want if you work on it, is another important aspect of learning success. Professor Carol Dweck writes about this. She encourages people to see what they can learn from change and including managing the things you say to yourself about the learning process. The key there is to focus on growth.

Will you have a go at some personal change? It would be great to hear how it went if you were willing to share with the other blog-readers.