In recent times I have found myself sensing a change in my life.  As per usual with my gammy brain I am not certain when or where or even what has to change I just sense intuitively that it’s time for changes.  I have felt like this for most of the year actually.   What caught my eye recently was how certain songs and certain sportstars have all pointed to a simple idea that most of us don’t pay attention to… you have to know when to walk away.

Why not take my word for it?  Listen to a classic and think about the words in this song.  What gets me in particular is this:

1. You got to know when to hold ‘em

2. Know when to fold ‘em

3. Know when to walk away

4. Know when to run

So have you noticed any changes in your life?  Any signs that it’s time to walk away or even run?  I have spoken about this before, but there is a real skill involved in finding out what you should be doing and knowing when to shift gears.

A key lesson in knowing when to walk away

I think the biggest sign of change comes from the intent through which you do something.  When you have a real hard time working up the energy to do what you used to love doing, then you have a key indicator from the deepest depths of your soul that change is coming.  Sometimes this means ditching friends, it means moving to a new city, sometimes … as I have done before it means removing all inhibiting factors from your life, just so you can grow.  Yet, in all these circumstances the thing that points to real growth, is knowing when to move on.  Pay attention to signs around you and how you feel.  If you have a developed sense of intuition you will know when it’s time to change.

You may get a push

Sometimes you may not have a choice and change may be thrust upon you.  Like in my job there is a lot of fear in our little pocket of the management school because the student numbers are down.  There are rumours of change, movements, forced redundancies.  If this is that case it could be God pushing you along!  Pay attention… those indicators are always there.  Other times, life just hammers you… so you have to grow whether you like it or not.  Good times

Let’s return to the song.  You have to know when to walk away… how can you really know that?  That’s sort of like saying how can you know you are a human.  You know.  Alarm bells are ringing on the inside and you haven’t been happy for a while.  Pay attention.  Remember… you gotta know when to walk away… only you know you so take some time to examine yourself and see if it is really time to change and begin to build it today.  Be courageous and have faith!

*Image Credit  Hajime NAKANO

Well I have been working my big ass off over the last week and I can tell you I feel the pressure of it. So much so that I have made a decision that I no longer wish to live a life where I am constantly required to answer email, work overtime and not get paid. So I began thinking what changes could I make? As I thought about it I noticed all the things I would have to do to actually make the change happen. This is not to mention serendipity either (something I appear to have no control over… or I do and just don’t know or perhaps combinations of both… but I digress).

Change requires learning

To make a change you need to learn your way forward. What is going to work and what is not going to work? What concepts will we use and what won’t we? A plan takes time to emerge and direction is not always forthcoming. There are just sometimes when you have to do it to be where you need to be. That means making a commitment to take action and suffer the consequences… rather than put up with a life that’s less than satisfactory. Change therefore requires learning and learning requires action. What a horrible pair they are!

If you want to do it… you must go through it!

Unfortunately taking new directions probably doesn’t mean the path of least resistance. You have to fail your way to success more often than not. So a holiday is better than change in that respect because change takes a lot more work than a holiday. However if change is lasting and makes a long term difference in your life then it’s worth it isn’t it?

So in summary I can’t conclusively say that change is as good as a holiday with this micro thought. I can say I would like to have a holiday to defer change. Because taking a holiday is shirtloads better than making changes! It’s very hard to change.