Change Is Not A Choice - Audio Tidbits Podcast

Audio Tidbits Podcast

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional, and are the portals of discovery. James Joyce

This certainly puts a different twist on the concept. The only requirement is that one is A man of genius. If so, you don’t make mistakes, you merely commit errors, on purpose. Try that one the next time you screw up, It’s no big deal. I just decided to make this mistake in order to open the portal for discovery. You can also note that on your resume where you explain why you left your last job.

Niels Bohr said, An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. Of course, Bohr does qualify as a man of genius. but to assume that he too is suggesting that those mistakes are the portals for discovery is likely not correct. A little folk wisdom may be more to the point. Why are things always in the last place you look? It’s because, once you find it, you quit looking.

Confucius has a better perspective, A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake. George Washington also joins in on the same side of the matter, To err is nature, to rectify error is glory. As you hustle to rectify those errors, it will help to allay your anxiety if you remember Robert Henry’s advice, Don’t ever be afraid to admit you were wrong. It’s like saying you’re wiser today than you were yesterday. While you’re at it though, don’t overlook Frank Lloyd Wright’s insight, A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines. Since you are the architect of your success, you would do well to minimize the number and size of the vines required to cover up your mistakes. …
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Since changes are going on anyway, the great thing is to learn enough about them so that we will be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Conditions and events are neither to be fled from nor passively acquiesced in. they are to be utilized and directed. John Dewey

It’s not surprising that Dewey bases his approach to change management on active learning. Since change is a fact of life, you might as well make the best of it. Learn as much as you can about the changes in your life and then use them, as much as possible, to your advantage. William Douglas suggested that success in using change in your best interest depends, in large measure, on adjusting your thinking to conform to today’s reality. Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts. Francis Bacon also agreed that you need to take charge of change and mold it to your purposes. Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

However, there are cautionary voices as you slide into the driver’s seat of your life. For example, Ellen Glasgow said, All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. Distinguishing good change from the not so good is an important aspect of the learning Dewey recommended. Arnold Bennett also raised the voice of caution, Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. Nonetheless, Lichtenberg submitted what is likely the take home point here, I cannot say whether things will get better if we change. what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

The substance of your life is in continuous change. The elements form and then rearrange. Some of those elements you can move and shift. Change can be slow or unusually swift.

It’s an ongoing saga through each twist and turn. You refuse to change. It’s not your concern. Edwards Deming discovered the conclusion to the story. It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.