Imagine climbing a big mountain. Adapting to change is like the adventurous journey of climbing a mountain.
To conquer your mountain, you need to successfully reach your summit by adapting to high altitudes and then safely getting back to the basecamp. To achieve this, you will need key elements in your external and internal environment to work together.
In your external environment, you need the proper weather conditions, quality equipment, and a reliable guide. In your internal environment, you need the best version of yourself in the best possible condition. You evolve as a person, and, as a result, you will know how to climb another mountain in your life.
Weather conditions stay out of your control. However, the climbing gear is partly under your control; you can only choose the quality and how to use it, but you usually cannot control how it is manufactured. Your relationship with a guide depends on both of your attitudes. Finally the only key element that you can truly have full control over is you.
To assist you with adapting to change, I have created a unique coaching program called “Everchange” inspired by the adventurous journey of climbing a mountain. It is a program for self-discovery with a holistic approach and long-lasting results. I will support you in developing and applying your very own “Creative Structure”, your personalized strategy to better adapt to change in a harmonious and creative way. Through this program, you will apply a framework of principles that you can fill up with a set of practical tools for your personal situation and complex environment. As a result, you develop “Creative Structure,” a personalized strategy for adapting to change with harmonious distribution of your time and energy but with flexibility to easily modify the components as your personal and professional life changes.
It’s like a compass used in the mountains; it shows you the direction, but you choose how to distribute your time and energy to make progress with the distance.
There are many concepts out there that support change. The countless «how to change» processes, strategies, and systems suggest that you can change as if it is a one-time event. But change is constant. Everything is ever-changing and so are you. It’s simply evolution, and to survive as an entrepreneur, you need to adapt.
To adapt means to ever evolve yourself in the main areas of your life. Through my own journey I have extracted 10 key elements of adaptation to change that you are in control of. Adapting is a process that happens simultaneously and continuously. All key elements are interconnected and create a holistic, interdependent system just like matter and energy in quantum physics. For the sake of learning and applying the principles of adapting to change for the first time, it is best to do it in a sequential form. This is because humans are not made for multitasking, and you can only fully focus on one element at a time.
This adventure will take you on an internal journey to reconnect with your true self: your core. Reconnecting to your true self will help you release unlimited internal power, the energy and drive force that will fuel your vision and entire journey.
There are several routes that lead to the summit. The moment of change is the decision, and it happens instantly. It feels like your first step on a chosen route towards your mountain. The challenge is the entire journey that leads you to the very moment of the decision and then the entire journey with the climb up to the summit and safely getting back to the basecamp. This is a complete “Everchange” adventure journey.
We are going to look at the details of your current self so you can start preparing for your own journey, your own climb, and your own summit. We are going to break down your current reality into the basic building blocks, redefine whatever it will be that is necessary for your growth, and reassemble it into your desired ideal self.
Your time and effort during this journey are essential, and there is no quick fix. Once you learn how to conquer the mountain by yourself, you will have the necessary knowledge and skills to conquer any other mountain in your life. You will have a blueprint for your personal adaptation to change that will help you free yourself from whatever will challenge you.
You will be working on the key areas of your life. You will learn the exact process of your personal change, you will test and learn how much effort you need to put into every step, and you will experience how much time every single step requires of you. You will experience the power of ignoring vs connecting to choose what key areas of your life you would like to focus on to move forward. Additionally you will learn more about the Ignoring vs Connecting Power Tool I have created.
It is said that it is human nature to fear change. However, I believe it is human nature to fear the unknown that is often related to change. Only you can conquer your mountain, and only you can put enough time and effort to get this done. It is tough, and it might be terrifying just thinking about doing it on your own.
That is why I invite you to create a partnership for this journey; we will be climbing together, and I will be your guide every step of the way.
So, the question is: are you willing to invest the time and energy to conquer your mountain and start the adventurous journey of your personal adaptation to change? If the answer is “yes” then let's get to work and explore the 10 key elements of adaptation to change that compose your very own Creative Structure. This is what we will focus on:
E - Your EXPERIENCES
At this stage we are going to explore your current reality and the level of readiness for this adventure: your current self. And just like the preparation for the big mountain, you need to honestly look at yourself and examine your physical and mental state. This is how you will kickstart working on your perspectives to make space for your updated versions. At this stage, we are going to:
Recognize your overall readiness for adapting and the major challenges you are facing at the moment
Break down your life situation into smaller parts to see where you are right now in the most important areas of your life and which one you would like to focus on to start with
Map what your primary painful problem is in that chosen area of your life that you desire to resolve and what might be the source of this problem
V - Your VISION
At this stage, we are going to explore your future in the most important areas of your desired life and who you need to become to get there. We will focus on the end vision of your chosen area of your life. You might need to focus on one area at a time to be able to define the end result that you want to achieve. After all you are able to move forward only if you have a direction towards your end result. At this stage, we are going to:
Break down your chosen area of life into smaller building blocks to figure out what your beliefs are about achieving your desired future in this area of life
Explore your life vision in the chosen area of your life and what it is that you want to achieve in the short and long term
Define your motivation behind your vision so you will be able to design specific steps towards achieving it
E - Your EDUCATION
Education is the key element that you need to cover the gap between your current life and your desired life. Where you are today is the result of your past thinking, your past beliefs and your past actions. To conquer your mountain, you will have to acquire new knowledge and skills and prepare yourself for consistent growth. At this stage, we are going to:
Explore your current knowledge, skills and superpowers, everything that led you to this point that you might take further on your journey
Map what you need to learn, what knowledge and skills you need to acquire to be prepared for your mountain
Create the plan for your personal development to constantly grow along the journey. This is a simple and effective way to gain a satellite view and hold yourself accountable
R - Your RESPONSIBILITY
Where you are in life right now is entirely your responsibility. In order to succeed with your adventurous journey of adapting to change, you need to own your own journey. You cannot have control of most of the things happening around you, like the weather in the mountains, but you can have full control over how you are going to prepare yourself for your journey. How you respond to the events which you will not be able to control during the ascend and the descent is very important. You will face challenges, you will have to acclimatize, and sometimes you will have to step back to the basecamp, wait for better conditions in the environment around you, and try again. The ability to respond is your choice, and you have the freedom to choose your attitude towards everything around you. No one has responsibility for your life but you. So, at this stage, we are going to:
Explore how you have been taking responsibility in your life so far and you are going to learn how to take control of every decision you are making
Disassemble key elements of your identity to see who you are right now in your chosen area of life and how it impacts the results you have
Design your ideal version of yourself that is capable of achieving your vision and conquering your mountain
C - Your COMMITMENT
Commitment takes you to your summit. It doesn’t leave the same space for failure. Once you create your own personal commitments, you will have the specific strategy for your life’s vision. Commitment comes from within; you can totally feel when it is aligned with your vision and your ideal self, and this will keep you motivated until your summit.
When you know where you are today, where you want to go next, what you need to learn to get there, and finally be aware that it’s totally your responsibility, then and only then are you able to create your true commitments. At this stage, we are going to:
Explore what the most meaningful commitments for you to achieve your vision are and how important they are for achieving it
Identify what must be done to accomplish asymmetric distribution of your time and energy to get exponential results from your commitments
Set your smart commitments into the specific timeframe and define how you will recognize that you have achieved them
H - Your HABITS
Your habits are your secret weapon on your adventure of conquering your mountain. It is necessary for you to master your habits so you can reach your summit and safely get back to the basecamp. Understanding your automatic behaviors on an everyday basis is the key element to building sustained, desired change. From this point, it will be much easier to do the necessary work and face upcoming challenges. At this stage, we are going to:
Explore your current habits in terms of your vision in the light of the recent science achievements and best practices created so far
Break your habits down into details so you will be able to determine those that are not serving you well and replace them with new ones that empower your vision.
Learn how habits work and shape your life, how to connect them with your vision, how to create powerful habits, and how to break negative ones
A - Your ACTIONS
Commitment is crucial to action, and action is a foundation of habits and sustained change. And let me make it crystal clear: nothing happens until you get into action. Climbing a mountain is not a single event; it is a series of actions that accumulate over time. Most of the accidents that take place in the mountains happen on the way down, so we want to make sure that you are not going to fall. At this stage, we are going to:
Explore your action items that will lead you to create powerful habits that will serve your vision
Define what stops you from getting into action and what the specific components are that create your procrastination
Develop highly actionable plans for each habit of your life as defined in your vision, based on your exploration and learning
N - Your NAVIGATION
We are going to work on the best implementation of your action plan. Once your action plan is launched, it might create momentum and state of flow. It is very important to measure and analyze your progress; otherwise, you might get off track or lose motivation and momentum. At this stage, we are going to:
Explore how to recognize the action items that support habits that bring you the best results
Learn how to get focused on those actions and how to stay in the state of flow
Choose how to measure, iterate and improve the actions so you can repeat them for as long as necessary
G - Your GRATITUDE
The whole adventure of conquering the big mountain is exciting, and it might take time. Developing a Creative Structure for your exciting future and the process of adapting to change might sometimes feel overwhelming. The big mountain might be unpredictable and sometimes challenging to climb. It is extremely important to create harmony throughout the whole journey. Gratitude allows you to consistently work towards your mountain and stay in a harmonious state at the same time. At this stage, we are going to:
Experience how your thinking impacts your well-being, your motivation and your results
Explore how to live in the moment and be happy before you achieve your vision
Experiment how you can manage your energy and what the practical tools are that will support you on your adventure
E - Your EVOLUTION
Once you work through all key elements of adapting to change during this program, you might become aware of how to move forward with other areas of your life. You can repeat this process as many times as you choose to and apply it to all your life areas. That’s why we call it «Evolution» in this model. You evolve as a person and adapt to an ever-changing environment by changing yourself. This evolutionary state is very empowering and with time, it will bring you new experiences in life. This process might create shifts in your perspectives and with time, you might look at yourself and your situation differently again. You might discover new opportunities for improvement that were impossible to be uncovered without the experience from the complete previous journey. At this stage, we are going to:
Imagine how your life might be different after the entire journey. Just like after conquering the big mountain you get back to the base camp with new learning that enriches you with experience, skills and knowledge
Choose how you can apply your learnings to climb another mountain and reach another summit in your life
Define how you can recognize that your journey of adapting change would serve you well in the future so you could repeat the whole cycle to climb another mountain in your life
EVERCHANGE is becoming the desired version of yourself in the desired environment.
This adventure journey of adapting to change has 3 levels of evolution:
Recover your «Self»
Discover your «Self»
Master your «Self»
Everything is ever-changing, and so are you. Change is the only real constant in life.