Three Proven Ways to Change Well from the Masters

Winston Churchill wrote one of my favorite mottos:  “To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often.”   His life mirrored the motto.  Churchill switched parties twice, held many diverse jobs in his sixty years of public life, and, most importantly, changed strategy and tactics during WWII. 

Keeping with the British theme,  David Bowie wrote the following lyric in Changes, reflecting on his need to continue to evolve artistically:

“ Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange.
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t want to be a richer man.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange.
Ch-ch-changes
There’s gonna have to be a different man.
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time.”

A profound truth is captured in Churchill’s motto and Bowie’s song. No one on earth is perfect, and if they achieve something close to perfection for a moment (a successful project or an inspiring blog), the ebb and flow of time and circumstances will make that moment fleeting. Complacency is not the friend of improvement or perfection. Indeed, the perfection of today is the mediocrity of tomorrow.  And as Bowie sings, you must ‘turn and face the strange’ to become a different, better person.

 So, what are some steps to make change a habit and constant improvement a trait:

Savor the moment and then move on.

First, sometimes, when we get something right, we tend to relish the victory a bit too long. Everyone should take a moment to celebrate the success, but in today’s victory often lies the seed of tomorrow’s defeat. That is why taking a moment to relish your accomplishment is essential, but do not only focus on what you got right. Look for the specific reasons that made the solution right in this circumstance and any item (there is always one) that could have been done better.

Harden your resolve and learn from mistakes,

Second, sometimes things go the opposite of perfect and badly wrong. Whether a battle scar was self-inflicted or due to circumstances beyond your control, there is always something to learn from it.  Reflecting on this idea, I used to have a segment of my group’s monthly tech talk called Battle-scar Galactica, where experienced people would tell tech war stories of what happened and how we eventually fixed them. We used this to harden our resolve and move on to bigger and better things.

This leads us to the third point. You have to have faith. Failing forward and learning from your mistakes gives you the faith to change and try something new that improves the situation. It allows you to seek new opportunities and constantly improve your habits.

Change with a purpose and a plan

Lastly, change without a plan is chaos.  Churchill did not change Great Britain’s strategy during WWII to change things up, hoping things would improve. Likewise, Bowie did not progress from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke and many other personas on a whim.  No! Both reflected on what their experience told them would work in changing circumstances.   They lived Bowie’s lyric, “Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” 

Bottom Line: We are all a work in progress, changing into the person we want to become. The goal is to make a habit of changing to become the person and achieve the purpose you were put on this earth to accomplish.  To change well, you must press onward, not wallowing in complacency or defeat but learning from your mistakes and adapting to the flow of time.  Let’s make change a habit and move on to a better you!  If you want to here the podcast, you can listen to it here

Don Grier

Helping others thrive through wellness and weightloss.

See Full Bio