Page Title

Challenges for Change

September 17, 2002

"One of the barriers to creative living and thinking is resistance to change.  Ironically, most people, when asked, will say that they like change and that they like to try new things.  This is a lie, and I can prove it!

As an exercise in minimal, incremental personal change, just try to accomplish one of the following challenges for change and stick to it for at least a month, followed by another one the next month, and so on.  This may look easy, particularly since you have a month to do each one, but you will probably soon learn that you aren't as adaptable or flexible or open to change as you'd like to think you are.

o Change all the stations on your car radio, and listen to them.  No going back.
o Take a different route to or from work and pay attention to what is around you.
o Change something about your daily routine.
o Get lost.  Get in your car and go against your instincts to want to know where you are.
o Track down and contact someone from your distant past.
o Start a new hobby, something out  of the ordinary (for you).
o Take a class in something irrelevant (not job-related or work-oriented).
o Read or subscribe to an offbeat publication - something you may disagree with.
o Get to know some weirdoes.  Start hanging out with a different crowd for a while.
o Join an organization that wouldn't want you.

The longer-term objective of this effort is to learn to like change, to get comfortable with it (Putzier, 2001, pp. 27-28)."

Reference:  Putzier, J. (2001).  Get weird!  101 innovative ways to make your company a great place to work.  New York:  AMACOM.

What challenge for change are you going to select this month?

Get Weird! is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/

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Created: 2008-12-13, Updated: 2009-01-06