The motto that you see on my Skype status is “To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often”. Also one of my favorite songs is Bowie’s “Changes”.
A deep truth is captured in this simple motto and Bowie’s song. No one currently on earth is perfect and if they achieve something close to perfection for a moment (a successful project or an inspiring blog), the ebb and flow of time and circumstances will serve to make that moment fleeting. Complacency is not the friend of improvement or perfection. Indeed, the perfection of today is the mediocrity of tomorrow. So what are some steps to make change a habit and constant improvement a trait:
Savor the Moment and then Move On – Sometimes when we get something right, we tend to relish in the victory a bit too long. Everyone should take a moment to celebrate the success, but in today’s victory often lies the seeds of tomorrow’s defeat. That is why it is important to take a moment to relish your accomplishment, but do not only focus on what you got right. Look for the specific circumstances that made the solution right in this circumstance but also any item (there is always one) that could have been done better.
Wear Battle-scars with Honor – Sometimes things go the opposite of perfect and go badly wrong. Whether the battle-scar was self inflicted or due to circumstances beyond your control (for instance, hardware failing when a key program is running), there is always something to learn from it. We used to have a segment of my group’s monthly tech talks called Battle-scar Galactica where the experienced people would tell tech war stories of what went wrong and how we eventually fixed them and also learned to get better. This leads us into the third point.
You got to have Faith – Failing forward and learning from your mistakes give you the faith to change and try something new that improves the situation. It provides you the capability to seek out new opportunities and change habits to constantly get better.
Bottom Line: We are all a work in progress changing to the person we ultimately want to become. The ultimate goal is to make change a habit to become the person and achieve the purpose that you were put on this earth to accomplish. So make Change a Habit and move on to a better you!
Weight Loss and Leadership 