Forget Resolutions – Choose Revolution!

Do you want more of the same in 2017 or is it time to not only figuratively sweep all of those papers off of your desk but perhaps even throw the desk out of the window too?

Have I been on the seasonal sherry you might well ask? Well no, actually.

It’s more a result of some end of year reflection on my part and a feeling that, much as in business, sometimes revolution, rather than incremental evolution is the only way to bring about much needed positive change.
My premise is that being revolutionary in approach will enable you to not only experience things you had not considered but potentially BE someone you have not yet considered – it’s not so much changing who you are however but more about letting a hidden you come to the fore.

Our identity is forged through a combination of our values, attitudes, behaviours, choices and experiences and day to day we act in a way that reinforces that identity. Sometimes, change in ourselves requires a change of perspective that lets us see ourselves differently such that other ways of acting are conceivable. At other times, it is simply a question of reconnecting with what we stand for and then acting accordingly.

When you think of the word ‘Revolution’ what comes up for you? Perhaps the notion of forcibly overthrowing the established (in political terms) potentially using violent means. I’m not condoning you do that. The words I would pick out from various definitions of revolution include standing for what you believe in, or choosing to engage in creating a better world. This doesn’t have to be big and dramatic; it can be in a small, quiet and gentle way. It can be as simple as following your own path against the status quo.

Take the act of Rosa Parks on 1st December 1955.

When a bus driver told her to make room for white passengers on the segregated city bus, Rosa Parks quietly refused and in doing so galvanised the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. Mia Bay, Professor of History, Rutgers University said about Rosa: “her story tells us that you don’t always have had to be a leader to do something important and to make an impact … or to have a big personality to take a stand .. you can be a quiet person of principle”.

What’s important are three key things:

1. Know what you stand for
2. Be conscious of what is happening around you
3. Bring what you stand for to how you live your life, each and every day, so that when something happening around you doesn’t align with what you stand for you have a choice to do something about it.

If you say that fairness is important to you and then notice someone being treated unfairly you are then in a position to make a conscious choice to do something about it. Sometimes that takes courage, at least at first. Taking a small step that might be unprecedented for you makes it easier the next time you choose to take a step. And .. with each new step we take, our lives will be different and we can be proud that potentially, by making choices governed by our principles, we may positively impact others’ lives to be different too.

So what can you do to choose Revolution this year, not Resolutions?

1. Be clear on your principles. What’s important to you that you are prepared to role model to the best of your ability?
2. Ask yourself what could change for the better for you, or for others, by more closely acting from principle in 2017?
3. Ask yourself what is at stake if you don’t try to do this more
4. As yourself what you could gain if you do do this more
5. Be more conscious of what’s going on around you
6. Take that first small step of courage
7. …and make peace with set-backs seeing them as making the journey more interesting and helping you for next time!