One of the more rewarding aspects of being a leader is to help people grow in their role and as a person.
I have developed many people in my managerial career, as well as help clients, catapult their life and their results.
But what about those people who don’t want to grow? What could possibly be a strong enough reason why a person wouldn’t want to transform their lives and their results?
Here are the three main reasons I have encountered from my experience.
Fear
By far the greatest reason most people don’t push themselves is fear of change and fear of the unknown. Humans are very comfortable in their comfort zone- most people stay there all of their lives. Ask yourself these questions:
- Am I getting the results that I am happy with?
- Have I learned all I could possibly learn in my lifetime?
- Will my life, my results continue to sustain my happiness the rest of my life?
If you answer “NO” to any one of these questions, then your only choice is to acknowledge the fact that you need to change your behaviors and habits in order to change your results.
Fear is a natural human response to unfamiliar situations. Keep in mind that fear is often based on being uncomfortable. Change agents LOVE being uncomfortable because it means they are growing!
People feel they are fine and in control of their results
It is amazing how defensive people become when questioned about their results. Quite often people feel that they ” have everything under control” yet continue to repeat the same actions in an effort to “immediately fix” the situation.
There is no shame in acknowledging that you may require guidance in order to change your results. In fact, it takes a lot of courage to say that you need assistance. Change agents are not only in control of their results; they take the necessary steps to make sure it happens.
They believe it will pass, get better
They continue to hope it gets better and may even make feeble attempts to try to change them, ending in failure. “Hoping” it will pass will not work without backing it up with action. By taking concrete, actionable steps to change the results, you can be assured that movement will occur.
Some may work, some may not. Change agents know they need to be flexible, make adjustments when needed in order to stay on track.
Expect obstacles, frustration and the temptation to quit. Moving beyond them will make you more resilient when the next obstacle lands in front of you.
It is unfortunate to see that people come so close to wanting to change and then fear kicks in and they back away. Growth is not for everyone; it is only for those who believe it in their heart that they want to change and willing to do whatever it takes to make those changes in order to drive their results.
These change agents will move beyond those who won’t change in order to lead extraordinary lives with extraordinary results.
Are you the next change agent?