This morning I was interviewed by a radio station in the UK. We talked about what gets people to change. What creates those a-ha! moments where a person decides “That’s it! I’m no longer going to stand being treated this way!” or “I’ve had enough of hating my job, it’s time for a change.”
Often it’s some kind of wake-up call.
Internal and External Wake-Up Calls
Wake up calls or nudges are happening in and outside us all the time. We, of course, get to choose which kind we prefer, but all of them are typically letting us know that change is needed.
Do you tend to ignore the quieter gut/intuitive signals you receive? Do you tuck them away and hope you’re the only who senses something’s just not right with your body, your relationship, or even how a project at work is playing out. Or do you pay attention and take action in response to what you’re sensing? Put down the diet soda, initiate a difficult conversation with your partner, or approach a team member and run your thoughts by them.
As many of us know, the quiet whispers become loud bangs if ignored for long enough. Maybe we suffer an anxiety attack that feels like a heart attack, or our partner asks for a divorce, or maybe the project fails and we get fired. Sometimes the wake-up calls come from somewhere else – our house burns down, someone we love dies in a tragic accident, or there’s an international tragedy.
Most days we’re sitting in a pool of choices, so how we dance with those choices matters. The ones we move towards and the ones we postpone can make all the difference.
When we make the difficult, often braver, choice to take some action in response to our intuitive wisdom or inexplicable ideas, we indirectly put ourselves in the driver’s seat of our life. We reclaim our role as woman- or man-in-charge. We feel more powerful, autonomous and free without anything else needing to change.
Even if we end up driving at 80mph down the ‘wrong’ road, at least we’re driving down a new road to a new place. We’re getting new results and that’s, typically, what most of us want. The more we drive and explore, the better we get at finding our way around. And there’s always value in the ‘wrong’ roads. Just getting on the road of our intuitive and creative ideas is enough to wake our lives us, shake off the dust, and embed a deep sense of pride and purpose – simply because we refused to continue being passive.
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