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It’s been a little while since I’ve done a ChangeLinks post, and it’s not for a lack of lots of talented people producing lots of great content. In fact, it’s been too hard for me to choose what to highlight! Here is just a small sampling of the great change and personal development material I’ve read recently.

Scott H. Young shared a great post at Lifehack.org with 15 Steps to Cultivate Lifelong Learning. These are all great, but I especially like 12) Follow Your Intuition. As Scott writes, learning is all about the journey and it’s sometimes best to have no goal in mind.

I recently came across an interesting site called 30 sleeps. In the site’s own words, “30zzz is an online community to set, manage, and track your goals on the world stage.” The combination of goal tracking with community support and accountability is a powerful motivator.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Stephen Shapiro. His blog entry How to Change Your Results by Changing Your Language is a powerful reminder that we have to frame our goals in ways that our subconscious will believe is possible.

The always cool Slow Leadership blog explains Why Your Flawed Notion of Change May Be Holding You Back. This post presents a great argument for why organizational change can happen in a bottom-up fashion.

And from the NSRT archives I humbly present Not All Change is Created Equal - Multiple Levels of Change.

When I introduced the concept of Sliding Scales of Change, I explained that the first step in any change process is to decide whether to change the situation at all. This is often harder than it seems. Humans are analytical creatures, constantly weighing possibilities against each other. This can leave us stuck in “analysis paralysis” waiting for the fact or argument that will finally make the “right” choice clear.

Sitting at 5
Going back to the concept of a 1 to 10 scale, if you were unable to decide whether to Change or Accept It As It Is (and it doesn’t matter what “It” is - if you know what I mean you would be at a 5. Regardless of what the song says, to me 5 is the Loneliest Number. I hate being stuck with two legitimate choices and no way of figuring out what I want to do. If the situation and choices are large enough - such as deciding to end or continue a relationship, or to sell or keep the business - it can feel like your entire life is on hold. Fortunately, there are some techniques for getting past this.

Any Decision Can Be the Right Decision
When deciding between two equally legitimate choices, we tend to over magnify the importance of the choice. We have mental dialogues such as, “I have to choose the right career or my life will be ruined!” or “If I don’t decide who to go on a date with I will never find love!” We all need to get over ourselves right now. Very few decisions will ruin your chances for happiness for the rest of your life and even fewer are life and death.

The book Goal Free Living makes the argument that “No matter what decision you make, it is the right decision, if you truly commit to it and never look back.” I especially like this post from the author Stephen Shapiro that recommends making major life decisions using Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Be a 1 or Be a 10
The worst choice we can make in any situation is to Not Choose. Indecision is a like a weight that we carry around and it slows down our progress. Whatever tool you find most helpful in making a decision, use it and get as close to a 1 or a 10 as possible. Don’t look back, don’t second guess and trust that any path is going to lead you to an interesting place.