The change starts in your heart

You are facing a challenge. Maybe you have to finish a project and the deadlines are pressing, or you have to present in front of demanding audience, not to mention a significant change that you potentially see on the horizon. In any case you need some motivation. You need an answer to your ?why?. Why would you try and do it? You probably know Simon Sinek`s famous saying (and the book) ?Start with Why?.

Not long ago I was watching an interview with the late Slovenian popular folk musician Lojze Slak. They asked him where from ?his notes were coming?. His response was very clear: ?My heart sings first, then my accordion ...? So we could easily convert Sinek`s ?Start with why? to ?Start with heart? (in a blog Crucial Skills you can read how to start with heart in conversations, for example). Starting with heart means starting with passion, enthusiasm, good intentions, positive attitude …

You simply have to be IN with the heart first. Since when you are IN with your heart, everything else turns out well …

I have recently been thinking a lot about the change, and the profound resistance of many people to it. We mostly see change as something that disrupts our daily routines, rarely as something that “our heart sings” about. Why is it so? Probably because the changes are not presented well to us, or we do not see beyond them. We normally see them just as more work, extra learning, or as uncertainty - instead of a great vision of something better or entirely new.

Just remember what Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of The Little Prince, once said: “If you want to build a ship, don`t drum up people together to collect the wood and don`t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Yes, longing for something that opens new horizons, something, where a mere thought about it causes your heart to start singing …

That is the way we should take when facing significant changes. So, instead of seeing an immediate impact of a change – which often is disruptive – try to see beyond the change. And probably you will find a reason for your heart to sing.