| Mastering Creative Change:
Step 7 -- Anchor the Change by Rosanne Bane Last of a seven-part excerpt of Rosanne Bane's book-in-progress Creative Change: How to Effectively Move Your Inspirations from Dream to Reality. On May 10, 1869, the presidents of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads met in Promontory Summit, Utah, to drive the last two stakes in the last wooden tie to celebrate the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad. You probably remember from your American History classes that one of those stakes was solid gold. The other was a mix of gold, silver and iron. Those stakes commemorated six years of work by thousands of laborers to complete 1,776 miles of track across the plains, over rivers and through mountains. While your change hasn't taken six years and thousands of people to complete, you've certainly invested a great deal of energy (both your own and your allies) to keep yourself focused and on track throughout the previous six steps. As you get close to completing your own version of the Transcontinental Railroad, you'll naturally invest less energy -- and one of two things will happen. Reality will meet your goals, in which case, you'll probably maintain the direction and focus of the change and what was once a change effort will become just another part of who you are and what you do. Or entropy will set in, and you'll gradually slide back into old patterns as if the change never happened, the way nature reclaims an abandoned homestead. You probably know the feeling of drifting away from an intended change. It's the sinking feeling that comes with throwing a diet out the window to belly up to a table of your old "binge" foods. It's the sigh that comes with the recognition that once again it's vacation time and your vacation fund has the measly $100 you deposited in the first month after last year's vacation. It's the inner voice that says "Don't even bother" when you think that, this time for sure, you'll exercise every day or work on that creative project you've been putting off or quit that unhealthy habit of yours. What determines whether a change is permanent or temporary? The firmness of your final stakes. In Step 6, you generated and celebrated the small steps that made up the big change you envisioned. When you get to the last task, you need to celebrate big. You need to commemorate the final efforts with your own version of driving the golden stakes before the cheering crowd. When you think about it, you know that gold is too soft a metal to actually drive into wood. So on May 10, 1869, the ceremonial, engraved gold stakes were not really hammered in; they were dropped into pre-drilled holes. And of course, gold is too precious to leave lying in a railroad tie; both stakes were removed to safekeeping after the crowds and the photographers left. (The solid gold stake is still on display in the Stanford University Museum.) You see, while the gold stake celebration is vitally important, it really isn't that strong. The real stakes that will secure the change you've worked so hard to implement are the ones made of iron and steel. Rely on iron You'll find iron in your habits. You begin by relying on your willpower long enough to make the change an entrenched habit. You get up every morning and take action on the change: You go to the gym, you take $2 out of your wallet and deposit it in your vacation fund, you get out your paints or your journal or your garden tools or whatever. And you keep taking that action until it becomes so much a part of your daily routine you can't imagine starting the day without it, anymore than you could imagine not brushing your teeth. (You can make a habit out of something you do at another time of day, but the demands of daily living often interfere with the best intentions and make those afternoon or evening habits harder to nail down.) If you're going to rely on habit, you have to take the action daily (or every Monday, Wednesday, Friday or on some other regular and frequent schedule). You have to do it whether you feel like it or not. Whether it's sunny or stormy. Whether your work life and personal life are normal or out of control. And you have to take that action for no reason other than this is a habit you're building. Your habits can be strong stakes, but they can be displaced if, as the childhood chant says, "The train should jump the track." You know, when you face one of those major, unforeseen events that life has a way of throwing at us from time to time. Iron is strong, but steel is stronger. Even more reliable than habit are the steel stakes of your values. Trust steel Changes that are clearly in keeping with and part of your personal values are far more likely to become lasting than those that are not aligned to your values. Nearly two years ago I decided to stop eating chocolate because I'd read that half the world's chocolate supplies come from the Ivory Coast where child slave laborers are forced to work the cocoa fields. Now, I love chocolate, probably too much. It's not much of a stretch to say that I was addicted to chocolate. So I've struggled with this decision at times. It's not as if my boycott has had a huge impact on the chocolate industry. But thinking about what it must be like to be a child slave reminds me that I don't want to be the kind of person who takes pleasure from something created by another person's misery. I'm not out to convert anyone; I don't think anyone else needs to stop eating chocolate. I just know eating chocolate is a violation of my values and knowing that keeps me coming back to my commitment, despite occasional slips. If I hadn't connected the decision to my values, my chocolate fast would have lasted two days at the most! Knowing your values and identifying how a change to honor those values will allow you to drive steel stakes to firmly secure that change. Begin by listing the qualities you value. Then consider how the change you're implementing is related to your values. How does the change you're securing honor and support your values? How would delaying or gradually losing the change violate your values? In my case, some of the qualities I value are freedom, compassion, joy and respect. These values are violated by slavery; they are honored by my small action to refrain from eating the fruits of slavery. And that awareness is what secures that change for me. Anticipate deviations Deviations from the change plan are a normal part of the process. You will backslide, and when you do, you can recover. (I've eaten chocolate a few times, but I keep coming back to my original choice.) If you accept that fact and plan to minimize those deviations, you'll achieve long-term success. If you think you'll never slip, you'll be devastated when you do. A deviation from the plan is not a sign of failure; it is only a sign that you need to return to the basics of reinforcing your habits and reconnecting them to your values. It's a sign that you need to review the previous six steps to see where you need to return your focus. Have you temporarily lost the sense of urgency or the awareness of how important this change is to you and your community? Are you out of touch with your allies and partners? Has the vision changed or does it need to change? Keep asking about the first six steps until you recognize which ones you need to reinforce. Preparing yourself for the fall helps you get back up again. The first thing my friend Art always taught his cross country skiing students was how to fall. Learning to move the skis forward started only after mastering how to fall without getting hurt and how to get back up. Because, as Art always said, if you're going to ski, you're going to fall. Consider, too, the fact that pilots get extensive training in what to do in emergency landing situations, that is, the best way to crash the plane. Pilots don't get this training to teach them to crash instead of flying. They get this training so that if they are ever in a crash situation, they are prepared to act quickly and effectively to minimize the damage. So what are you going to do if you fall or even crash? What's your plan of action if your stakes come loose and you find yourself drifting off track? You need a plan. It should be a fairly simple plan, because when we're falling, we tend to be a bit stressed and our capacity to follow complex plans is greatly reduced. It might be as simple as "I will read my Urgency Statement every day." When I think about eating chocolate again, my plan is to talk with my allies about why I want it and why I choose not to eat it. The important thing is that you plan ahead. The best way to respond to deviations is to anticipate them and, by anticipating them, avoid at least some of them. Write a statement of what you will commit to start doing or continue doing to firmly secure this change you've worked so hard to implement. Ask yourself what other changes you're willing to make in your environment, life style, schedule, finances, etc., to secure this change. Consider how your values will support this change. Include five to ten simple actions you can take to recover from deviations. Congratulations! You're applied seven simple (but not easy) steps to make your creative change a meaningful and lasting one. Your creativity and commitment are a small part of what is making our world a better place. Thank you. Rosanne Bane, M.A., is a Creativity Coach and author of Dancing in the Dragon's Den: Rekindling the Creative Fire in Your Shadow. She has been teaching creativity for more than 14 years. For more information about her coaching, creativity classes, Change Master workshops and presentations on creativity and change, visit RosanneBane.com or call (612) 722-4139. Copyright © 2004 Rosanne Bane, All Rights Reserved. |
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Feb 2004 |
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