Empower U - Change

What's that Smell? That's Change!

If you have ever seen the movie, “Osmosis Jones”, that is a line that is used by a candidate running for Mayor of Frank. It is interesting how change has a “smell” …to some it could be a smell from the bathroom, for others a smell of excitement. What olfactory sensation does change create in your experience? For most people it is uncomfortable, fearful and even downright stinky!

Comfortable is really familiarity and in reality the zone is always changing.

A big part of what we do at Empower U is to teach how to move through uncomfortable situations; to get outside of our proverbial comfort zone—that circular shaped zone that we live in, keeping us orbiting in our familiar planet of emotions and feelings. The irony is that this so-called comfort zone is nothing more than what's familiar to us. Comfortable is really familiarity and in reality the zone is always changing. This familiar zone, for some strange reason, we would rather maintain (even though it could be painful) than experience the possibility of freedom—if we dared to “step over the line.” This familiar pain makes up the reality that we call our life. So when we change things, our world as we know it ceases to exist. Pure panic and despair sets in… what to do?… what to do? Here’s the answer… Something… Do Something!

At Empower U we too are going through much change. We are using this time of “market adjustment,” to build a firmer foundation and “LIVE IT”…(the precepts of what we promote). We have thinned our staff, consolidated our offices, and streamline our expenses, all in the name of building a firmer foundation. In the process I have realized that by not dealing with change at the proper time, change can become somewhat “smelly.” When change is avoided and the situation is allowed to “fester,” the smell is nothing pretty. As I have built Empower U, I have always used myself as a humble example of mistakes and how to grow and learn from them. I have another great opportunity to add to the plethora of examples, of what “not to do”. By not doing what I am about to say… I have learned this about change:

Embrace it!

Want it. Create it. Live it…. Embrace it! The planets are moving, the market is moving, our classes are moving… If you are not moving then what are you doing? The biggest lesson I have learned is that, its ok to embrace change. It does take emotional energy, it does turn the stomach, and it might even turn a relationship… So if that is the case, why even deal with it? Why not just let things go and not deal with the pain? This sounds like a logical argument. However I have also learned that delaying pain, expands the consequence. Delaying the pain of dealing with something that needs to be changed only increases the intensity of the pain to be felt. You will pay the consequence of the “fear of change”… you can pay me now, or you can pay me later. The problem is that the later has more pain and agony associated with it.

As we have been restructuring our vision, our mission, and changed the entire structure of our organization, I am paying for some of the changes I didn’t make. I knew there was personnel that weren’t part of the bigger picture; I knew there were practices that needed to be changed… I chose not to “embrace it,” and now there is a new meaning to “Living it”! Delegation through abdication is not an acceptable practice in the libraries of successful companies, nor should it be. The Time is Now to embrace change and move forward to the accomplishment of your mission.

"…Why Tommy, that’s the smell of change!"

With the changes that we have made at Empower U over the last 4 months, the smell has gotten much better. I can honestly say, that we have never lived what we taught more than we are “Living It” today. We are about to see some fruit from some of the changes we were finally forced to make. What a sweet smell it can be…

Are you ready to bite into the apple of change? The changes that can propel you back on course, or it can also make the journey more enjoyable. It can taste delicious, intoxicating… even become a crusade… What change have you been putting off? Are you ready to move outside the familiar zone? Better yet, are you willing to expand it? Let’s celebrate the new bouquet of life that comes from that … change.