To do something new, we have to become someone new
'To do something new, we have to become someone new.'
I was on Bob Gentle's podcast, The Personal Brand Business Show, when I found myself saying those words or some like them.
Bob slowed it right down on that - it was impactful for him. And, as I slowed down, I realised it was impactful for me, too.
There are people in pretty much every corner of the political spectrum and every corner of the media who will tell you about the crises we are facing.
It was Jordan Hall who I heard, at an event, give pretty much the best response for what any of us can do in the face of all these crises that I have ever heard. It was something like this (my words, not his): work out the things that only you can do, where all your strengths meet, and then do them. And do the work on yourself so you can be as sure as possible that you are sovereign of yourself, not run by the baser parts of you. This second part is important so that you can be as sure as possible that you are making things better with the action you take, and not worse.
We could look at this as growing your power - through finding the unique gifts that only you have and developing them.
And growing your wisdom - so that you can can know as much as is possible for a person to know that you are putting that power to use for the good of everyone.
Within that context, 'to do something new you have to become someone new' takes on a new frame. It invites an imperative on each of us who wants to make a difference, to do something new.
I'm hesitant to write this: many people have put in enormous work over their lifetimes and deserve a rest. Still more are focused on the day-to-day strain of their lives - asking them to stretch and grow themselves feels naive or idealistic.
And yet, doing new things enables us to grow. When we stretch ourselves to do something new, we become someone new, more capable, bigger, more skillful, with more choice and more capacity. And in the face of the many possible crises in the world, how capable we are to make a difference matters.
Perhaps, then, we can expand the frame like this.
Over the course of our lives, if we are lucky enough to find ourselves in situations where we have just enough for ourselves and our families that the panic of survival is no longer upon us, then this bears thinking about: are you stretching and growing yourself to become all that you are capable of?
New things don't have to be done explicitly for this purpose: many people stretch themselves through their work or their relationships every day of their lives. Life has a way of forcing us to do new things and therefore become someone new.
And yet when we look at this in a more focused way, more can become possible.
The active use of 'doing something new' to 'become someone new' changes the focus all of a sudden: no longer is the outcome of the new thing all-important. Instead, the way you change and grow becomes success.
The fears take on a different shade: they can become the natural response of a you who will be changed and therefore cease to exist if you do the new thing. So no wonder that you is scared.
We may no longer have to live in the corner of our lives we think we have to live in because 'who are we to do this thing?' As I've written before, you aren't the person who can do it until you've done it.
We may no longer have to be tied in by who we have always been, what we have done before, when we know that in the doing will come the becoming.
After all this, though, come the choices. When we can't do everything, how do we decide where to start? How do we decide who we want to become? How do we decide what to do with this one life we have?
Well, that's where things get interesting.
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Join me in December for an interactive workshop on applying ideas like the one in this article: How to Be More Productive (and why time management won’t help you)
This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.
Read the archive of the 12-minute blog here.