Get Going: To realize your dreams, you have to take them on!

I have a friend. He was a manager in a prestigious company and had a mid-level job. His company was well regarded. I would say he had made his living. But he really did not like his work. Sometimes, he even hated it. On Sunday evenings he groaned in the face of the coming week. He did not like the reporting structure of the company. He did not like the constant back-and-forth with his team. And most of his time he was disappointed by his boss. He preferred to realize his own ideas. He had great plans for new services that his colleagues didn't enjoy as much as he did. They just followed their duties. For months I told him again and again: "Quit your job, become self-employed. Follow your dreams. And above all, put your strengths to better use." But he was afraid of his own courage. Even after I had spoken to him conscientiously, he dragged himself into the company for another week. Dutiful. However, at the bottom of his heart, he was unhappy.

Do you know such people? Those who are dissatisfied with their work and - if they had the choice - would actually do something quite different? In another industry, a different work environment, with other colleagues and in the midst of a more appreciative culture? Is it the same for you? Would you like to change your professional situation, but have inhibitions because you fear the consequences? Don't want to exchange safe employment for an uncertain future? And, afterall, your current position isn't so bad.

I asked that friend of mine: "What are you waiting for? Life is too short to let it pass by unhappily and passively." I told him what great experiences he might have if he founded his own company, what satisfaction he would draw from it when the first customer bought into his idea. He grinned happily and looked at me expectantly. "This is a step nobody will take for you, except yourself!" I told him. "You are the moving force in your life."

You probably guessed it: He finally took the first step and now runs his own small business. It has its own ups and downs, naturally, but now he is satisfied because he is the one who charts his own destiny.

I hear such stories a lot. And -- quite honestly? I can't get enough of them. Because I can hardly stand it when people do things that they don't really like and give away their potential just because they don't want to face  challenges and are afraid of confrontations. Dont they know that they grow enormously when they overcome their internal pitbull and pursue their dreams?

When we started the CAS Change & Innovation Management course at the University of St.Gallen last winter, most of the participants probably didn't know exactly what to expect. With "Challenge Management" as the main subject of the course, many people may have wondered what that might be. Actually, deep down they know it: They dare to tackle challenges and dont even think of being stopped by hurdles and problems. Whether it is on the way to their dream job, the desired hobby or the personal well-being working time.

It was clear to me that the many experts involved with the course and myself could pass on a lot on this topic. That is why I started teaching "Challenge Management." But you know what? I hadn't dared to dream that the participants actually would accept their challenges so quickly and that it would transform into such an incredibly great successes.

For example, when the managing director of a small business began studying with us, he felt he had to change something about his professional situation, but he didnt know what. He had taken over his job from his father, the company had been doing business in the family for decades. There were no conversations at the kitchen table that did not concern the worries and needs of the company. In the course of the training, no changes were recognizable. Recently, however, he reported back to me and my team: Both he and his father sold their shares. Since then, he has been in a wonderful way without any regret. Now he plans for the next tasks he wants to approach.

But it does not always have to be such a large, existential step. It can also be the broadening of a life, or the second ignition needed to help a high-performer reach the top.

For example, another participant, a senior manager in the M & A department of the auditing firm KPMG, always dreamed of becoming a triathlete. So far, he had not managed to do this because of the high workload at his workplace (which he otherwise loves). In our studies, however, he learned techniques to reach further sources of untapped energy that enabled him to master two triathlons in that same year. At the same time, he was enthusiastic about  receiving a full 360 degree update on the latest trends in corporate strategy and e-marketing.

I was especially delighted to meet a physician who participated in our challenge management course. As a senior physician at a psychiatric clinic, she became too restricted by the corset of a publicly funded clinic with strict structures. During the study course, thanks to the constant input of new ideas, she thought of a reorganization to improve her working conditions. In the meantime, she has come to a different conclusion: after studying more intensely the misery of claims to oneself and real opportunities to unfold, she found that it was not necessarily just the structure that frustrated her - she saw the opportunity to start her own ambulance service. And she hired her own employees, who she wanted to build  into a motivated, committed team, so that the all-important aspect of "joy and satisfaction at work" could be created again. She resigned from her job -- yes, the very safe position of a senior doctor! -- and has now begun her own ambulance service. Every patient would be treated according to their own preferences and with the most advanced methods. In the future, she will keep the reigns in her own hands and coach her employees to manage a new, modern service with the primarily benefits going directly to its patients. She told me later that my words that she was the moving force in her own life, gave her the push she needed and that this philosophy will also play a decisive role in their ambulance and treatment concept.

I am impressed by the courage of all my students and I wish success and satisfaction will reward them and all those like them who dare to follow their dreams. And if you need a little something extra to make a small change or take a big bold step, a friendly reminder should hang on your bathroom mirror: "It is your life -- and only you are the moving force!" I promise you, it's worth it!