A few weeks ago I attended the Dave Ramsey Live! event in Long Beach.
He had some cool things to say about change. I will give loose quotes and then expand his ideas.
Some people stay in jobs they hate because they hate change more than they hate their jobs.
The fear of change can be so great that you’re locked into a horrible situation. I can’t relate to that, since I’ve had to fire several employers. (You read that right – I have fired my employer.) It isn’t really that difficult. I found it quite liberating. Maybe you need to give it a try.
However, I’ve seen people who are locked in a bad job – what a terrible place to be.
You won’t make major change until you get mad.
And he means nail-spitting, eyes-popping, neck-bulging mad. You can’t break out of the situation until it is absolutely intolerable and you will do what it takes to get out.
Dave Ramsey illustrates with a hypothetical caller who, with a very mealy mouth, whiny voice, says something like “well, I’m not really sure it’s going to work, and you know, I’m not even in all that bad of a situation, so you think I can get rid of my debt?” Dave very clearly and boldly says “NO.” Looks to me like that kind of caller is actually content and doesn’t really want to change. As a result that is what he will get: no change.
The contrast provided by Dave is a caller who was almost shouting because the caller was furious at himself and his situation and doesn’t want to take it anymore and is sick and tired of living like this and is not going to keep digging himself into a hole. Will his situation change? “Yup”, says Dave. That guy is already halfway there.
Gazelle intense.
Dave shows a video of a gazelle outrunning a cheetah. For the cheetah, the chase only means lunch. For the gazelle, the chase is a matter of life or death.
Just as Dave says you need to have gazelle intensity to get out of debt, we need to have gazelle intensity if we are going to thrive in the face of massive, overwhelming change that is just around the corner.
Final idea I will mention. Dave says:
Change is a process, not an event, and yet we worship the event in our culture.
It’s a long process to get out of debt. Likewise, it will take lifelong learning and growth if we are going to thrive into the future.
The future is going to be fun. I firmly believe the future is so bright we should all put on sunglasses. For me, that makes the changes easier.