Have you ever been asked a question that wasn’t easy to answer, but in your heart, you knew it was the right question that needed to be answered?
I know what that question is, and it’s always been a hard one for me. It’s the question we all need to be ready to answer in our personal and professional life to achieve what we want, hope or dream for.
If you are a leader in your organization, this question is for your organization too.
Here’s the question.
What will you give up or change to _________?
Fill in the blank with the dream or goal you want to achieve.
This question is hard because it’s asking you what you are willing to invest of yourself to get what you want.
Let’s look at some examples of this question.
In your career, you aren’t satisfied with your advancement at the company where you work. I’ve been there before. You look at the positives, it’s a great organization, very stable, you like your team members, and you make good money. But, new opportunities aren’t happening. Ask yourself, are you ready to give up the stability, the money and your team to make a jump to a new organization for an advancement opportunity? Are opportunities more important to you than comfort and stability, enough that you’ll take a risk? If you don’t make a jump, do you really believe things will change where you are?
In your personal life, what do you want to or need to change? It could be you want to lose some of the extra pounds gained during the pandemic, or maybe you are single and would like to find a partner. What change do you need to make? For me it’s my lower back, which is tight these days, uncomfortable, but not yet what I’d call pain. I know the tightness will become pain if I don’t do something. If I change my routine and add 30 minutes of stretching each day, the tightness will go away. If I don’t stretch, it will become pain.
At your organization, which is a small start-up getting ready to expand and become a sustaining business. Your team needs to bring on new members who can help with the workload and bring expertise you don’t have. Are you and your team ready to give up control and trust new people who haven’t been with you since the beginning? If you don’t invest in expanding the team, will you ever become the business you’ve dreamed of?
We don’t like this question because it convicts us personally, it’s something we need to do. We live in a world today where it has become easy to blame someone else for why things didn’t go as we hoped or planned. Turn on the news and you’ll see someone blaming someone else for something. It’s easy to be the victim.
This question challenges your victim status and focuses on two things I find are missing these days, things I’ve struggled with myself.
- Personal accountability – No one can do it for you, it must be you who makes a change.
- Risk – In making a change, things will never be the same. There is risk in every change, but without risking, there won’t be a reward.
Are you ready to answer the question, to make a change?
Pray about the change first, seek His wisdom, and then make the change knowing God is with you ever step.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
