Living in the Tension of Change and Growth – 3 Ways to Challenge Your Mindsets

Looking for a change in the way that you do work and life? Often a change in perspective and the willingness to accept and live in paradox is the only way to do it. Be willing to live in the tension—holding two seemingly opposite concepts at once (such as being tough yet compassionate, or strong yet vulnerable).

Here are 3 tips –

Try a Picture-in-Picture Approach.

My friend, Laurie Beth Jones, has a good analogy called the “picture-in-picture” approach. We must learn to keep more than one channel on the screen and be able switch between them. For example, a leader needs to be able to expand the “vision” onto the full screen in order to develop strategy while at the same time keeping the practical details of reality in the smaller background screen, knowing she’ll need to swap pictures again to deal with the here and now.

Develop flexibility in yourself and others.

Push yourself to identify old mindsets that really aren’t working. When notice that your actions don’t seem to bring good results, consider taking a new perspective. As you get older, flexibility gets harder but it’s worth the effort. Share your growth and mentor others to do the same.

Remember the Stockdale Paradox.

Leaders need resilience in tough times. Our POW leader, CDR James Bond Stockdale, the senior Naval officer in the camps knew a lot about resilience—spending more than four years in solitary confinement, two years in the infamous Alcatraz camp with many rounds of torture.

The “Stockdale Paradox” says – “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

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Please share your wisdom and personal experiences on this topic, too – thank you!