CHANGE:

“The law of change states that

Change is inevitable. Because it is driven by expanding knowledge and technology, it is accelerating at a speed never seen before. You have to be a master of change rather than a victim of change.”

The world hates change yet it is the only thing that has brought progress. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

The Cheese Is Not Always Where You Think It Is(Based on the Concepts Presented in ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’

Dr. Spencer Johnson)

1. Having Cheese Makes You Happy

s There are things in life, your wealth, possessions, position, relationships that make you happy.

s You get so comfortable in these that after some time the main focus becomes how to protect what you have.

s This is enhanced by the fear of losing it.

2. The More Important Your Cheese Is to You, the More You Want to Hold on to It

s The more important what you currently have is to you, the more you will try to protect it.

s Since progress means to let go what you have, in order to have a chance to get what you don’t have, this attitude impacts progress

3. When Your Cheese Moves, and You Don’t Move With It, You Become Extinct

s When boundary conditions change you need to adapt to them. Otherwise you will perish.

s Adapting however, only guarantees survival – not growth or development

4. What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?

s For growth and development, you need to anticipate change and prepare for it while the need is still not clearly evident.

s For this it is essential to conquer fear. Ask yourself, what you would do if you were not afraid.

5. Smell the Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old

s In order to be able to anticipate impending changes, you need to be constantly aware of your environment and the conditions that impact it.

s This awareness should relate both to time and space - historical and geographic perspective. Who are you and how do you fit into the larger scheme of things?

6. Moving in a New Direction Helps You Find New Cheese

s Constantly challenging yourself – the dynamics of deliberate discomfort, created to combat complacency – is the key to development.

s Constant and continuous self development and learning, challenging yourself to new heights once you have achieved your current goals.

7. When You Move Beyond Your Fear, You Feel Free

s Everyone starts from being afraid. Fear is a sign of intelligence, that you recognize the enormity of the goal.

s However to get ahead it is necessary to conquer that fear and to move beyond that, to move in spite of it. To use it as the engine of energy to move you forward.

s When you do that you are free from it.

8. Imagining Myself Enjoying the New Cheese Even Before I Find It, Leads Me to It

s Visualization and other such techniques help to conquer the fear and to find new direction.

s Ask yourself, “How would it feel to have what I want? What does that mean to me? How important is that to me?”

9. The Quicker You Let Go of Old Cheese, the Sooner You Find New Cheese

s The less attachment you have to your current possessions, status, situation, the easier it will be to give it up in favor of new possibilities.

10. It Is Safer to Search in the Maze Than to Remain in a Cheese-less Situation

s The reality is that the danger of failing in your search for progress is far smaller than the danger of remaining in the position of ‘turf protector’ and becoming extinct.

11. Old Beliefs Do Not Lead You to New Cheese

s “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we used when we created them.”

Albert Einstein

12. When You See That You Can Find and Enjoy New Cheese, You Change Course

s Once you start making an effort you will see signs of success. This will enhance your confidence and enable you to realize your dreams.

13. Noticing Small Changes Early Helps You to Adapt to the
Bigger Changes That Are to Come

s Small changes are not only good signs of what is to come but they are also easier to adapt to and less costly to make.

s So if you are aware of them you can significantly shorten your learning curve and reduce time-to-market for your product and make it highly responsive to customer need.

14. The Writing on the Wall

s Change Happens

-They Keep Moving the Cheese

s Anticipate Change

-Get Ready for the Cheese to Move

s Monitor Change

-Smell the Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old

s Adapt to Change Quickly

-The Quicker You Let Go of Old Cheese the Sooner You

Can Enjoy New Cheese

s Change

-Move with the Cheese

s Enjoy Change

-Savor the Adventure and Enjoy the Taste of New

Cheese

15. Be Ready to Change Quickly and Enjoy It Again

s ‘They Keep Moving the Cheese’

GEMS:

ü You can change anything you want. You just can't change everything you want.

ü Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

ü In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

ü You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

ü The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.

ü The greatest lever for change is awareness.

ü We don't change what we are, we change what we think what we are.

ü Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.

ü From the tomb of Machiavelli
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

ü All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination and then works its way out. Imagination is more important than knowledge.

(from my book "10 Fundamental Rules of Success", Publishers: PUSTAK MAHAL, New Delhi)

--------------------------------------------