Jul 02 2013

How many times have you heard someone say “we’ve tried that before, it doesn’t work” or “that won’t work here because…”? How often in life do we stop at the first hurdle? How many times do we try to make a change only to find ourselves struggling to overcome various obstacles to the change?

Change is difficult, there is no question about that and it can be a very emotional subject with many people. Hurdles seem to constantly crop up in front of us as we embark down the road to new & better. It is how we deal with those hurdles that differentiates the winners & losers in the world.

Some see each new hurdle as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to overcome whatever the world puts in front of them. Others use them as excuses for not progressing, for not following through with things we would like to do. When someone says “we tried that before & it didn’t work”  an appropriate response could be “why didn’t it work? What were the barriers or problems that kept it from working?”

Quite often we find that the problems were not insurmountable, only unexpected or worse, expected but not dealt with properly. In the journey called “Lean” there are many hurdles, quite often the biggest ones are the mentality/psychology of the people in the organisation. Quite often these people who do not believe real change is possible are those same people who, when faced with hurdles would rather give up then find a way over, around or through that hurdle.

To get the benefits of any change, we have to push through the difficulties faced, not give up & revert to the old ways of doing things just because the change is difficult. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it! The next time you face a hurdle in front of you, keeping you from your goal. Think about your approach, do you face the challenge & find a way to the other side like this guy? Or do you stop & give up?

photo credit: julie.froo via photopin cc