A colleague of mine is about to undertake a very difficult and dangerous physical challenge. I can't tell you much about it at the moment but as soon as he starts blogging about it I will let you in on it!
We all admire people who put themselves to the test physically, especially when they are attempting something we ourselves cannot imagine doing - for me that includes anything involving running, anything in the extreme cold or anything which involves doing without a nice cup of Starbucks coffee every day.
It is relatively easy for most of us to imagine what would be hard about a physical challenge. Let's say you were about to trek to the North Pole. You can imagine some of the things that would be tough about that -
- The cold
- The lack of home comforts
- The company of a small set of other people who are bound to annoy you at some time
- The relentlessness and potentially the boredom
- The exhaustion
- The difficulty of escaping should you want to give up
- Missing people back home
- The muscle pain and potential pain of injuries (and the lack of access to a doctor or pain meds or a nice warm bath)
Before you set off you would have to be pretty sure that you were prepared to take part despite all of these difficulties. In fact, you would have to believe that the end result - the sense of achievement - would be worth it.
But how much consideration do we give when we embark on a mental or emotional challenge? When we sign up for a self-development programme or try to bring about a change in our company or in our lives...how much do we think about the difficulties we will face?
I find that people under-estimate how hard these mental or emotional challenges are going to be. And then, when they face the inevitable difficulties, they are unprepared. Emotional or mental challenges are just as likely to be tough and include -
- Feelings of physical discomfort (stomach aches, headaches etc)
- Lack of familiar comforts (change inevitably means stepping outside the familiarity of the comfort zone)
- The company of a small set of other people who are bound to annoy you at some time
- The relentlessness and potentially the boredom (change isn't always interesting!)
- Missing people from your past life
- Wanting to give up or downgrade the success criteria (e.g. "Maybe just by getting this far we have proven enough")
- The pain of growth and change for which there is no medication
I don't lightly make this analogy. I believe this is one of the main reasons we so often give up when we set about making a change to our lives or to our company or to our relationships or to ourselves. We don't think of it as giving up because it isn't as obvious as turning on your heels half way to the North Pole. But it is giving up nonetheless.
At Taming Tigers we are going to ask all delegates to fully commit to the journey they are about to embark on as if it were a physical challenge rather than a mindset challenge.
I believe that, if we fully recognise what we are about to do and face up to the myriad ways we will find it hard before we start, we will be far better equipped to deal with those obstacles when they arise...certainly better equipped than if we entered in to the journey oblivious of the hurdles and pains ahead. Ignorance is not bliss.
