“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” This quote about change from Peter Drucker sounds simple at first, and upon reflection the simplicity fades leaving us to ponder the intention left behind.
The interesting thing is this: most people don’t necessarily know what they dislike about the thing that troubles them. Additionally, they probably find themselves totally oblivious to what it would look/sound/feel like if they were showing up in a different way. Discovering the ‘something new’ to start can be as complicated as finding the ‘something old’ to stop.
Usually, creating something new automatically equates to stopping something old anyway. An example – someone says, “I don’t like the way I show up in meetings”. The old and new both live inside that one statement. The old – the undesirable way to show up expressed explicitly (in the past/now). The new – an unexpressed assumption leading to the notion of possibly showing up in a different (in the future).
- What old thing must I stop doing?
- What new thing do I want?
- Does the new thing have to be as ‘big’ as the old thing?
- Does the new thing have to be related to the old thing?
- What makes an old thing old?
- What makes a new thing new?
- Is removing an old thing going to make me/my life/my world better?
- Is adding a new thing going to make me/my life/my world better?
The idea behind each of these questions depends on identifying behaviors. Behaviors originate from our thoughts, moods, emotions, and body that underpin and shape how we interact with reality. Digging deeper into the “…I don’t like…” and asking the questions above exposes us to the ‘way of being’ we created in given circumstances and situations. Engaging in this inquiry provides access to the construction of a new `way of being` more in alignment with what we choose to create.
The fact remains, it’s hard to accommodate something new without creating space for it in your life, without letting go of something. The new ‘way of being’ is the alpha-and-omega answer to the transformation from old-to-new. The point to this leads to the question, what does ‘new’ look like, sound like, smell like, feel like? Who knows ‘new’ when it has never existed, oops…rhetorical question. By the way, what kind of ‘new’ I want in my life starts with who I choose to be. Creating a different ‘way of being’ for yourself, by default, without any consideration, will remove the ‘something old’.
