What are the barriers to one’s own transformation?

Could it be the pictures we build in our mind as to who we are and why we do things the way we do? Is there a benefit to shifting our metaphors?

This is the 2nd Round of Cheers to Thee 2023 Focus on Your Transformation which is dialing in on:

What are the potential barriers of our own making when it comes to changing what we actually need and want to change?

Are the barriers in the way we choose to see the world? In other words, our paradigms?

Take for example today’s date … is it February 29th or is it March 1st…? Well, it depends. The date changes - and everyone pretty much agrees on it - every four years.

Why is that?

The day doesn’t really care what month it falls into, it simply adjusts according to the whims of the calendar programers. The only real vested interest are folks born on this day who only get to celebrate every four years or filmmakers making bank on a supposed Irish tradition. The rest of us may smile and say, oh ya, we get an extra day this year… or not.

Why is this so different when asked what is getting in the way of our dreams, desires, or the necessary changes we need to make in order to transform our lives?

The barriers to our own transformation can be seen as unbelievable hurdles - that maybe on January 1st we make a vain attempt to address but since we haven’t shifted our mindset around how we perceive these barriers, by January 31st, many of us have given up on making those transformative changes.

Why is that?

We took this question to task in the #Amaze2022 Transformation Passport journey and invited Magic Mike Hruska, whose day job is Chief Revenue Officer and Innovation Coach for Allen Interactions and whose side jobs are too numerous and interesting to list out here, to take us through a Magic Makers Mindset to see how we can shift perception and change our metaphors around how we perceive something.

Mike Hruska’s Magic Makers Mindset (2022)

Magic Mike Hruska’s premise? “Learning, innovation and magic have been interconnected throughout history. Discovery, creation and sharing magic occur time and time again across a small, similar, trusting and somewhat close knit group. What can we learn from this ‘learning’ in the magic community?”

One of the core learnings in magic? Novelty and delight. So can we make change as delightful as magic?

Can we delight through the shift of perception?

Back to our example, February 29 or March 1st is truly simply a perception and over time a common agreement. Can this be analogous to how we choose to reframe change?

The wonderful Nancy Krauss, Learning and Talent Leader, who won the meme for the session, brought the concept to a succinct point “we have to change the experience to change the belief to change the behavior.”

So bringing it back to what are the barriers for our own transformation.

What are the experiences that we had in the past, which led us to believe certain things, which then showed up in our behavior?

These led us to have certain….

paradigms (ways of choosing to see the world) around what will continue to happen in the future.

So if we are looking for transformation of ourselves, what do we need to do to shift our paradigms and change our metaphors around what is and what can be?

We can start by asking ourselves on the path to our own magical delight:

What effect are we trying to make?
What effect might people be perceiving (what paradigms exist?)
What might be getting in the way?
Are there unseen elephants that need to be openly addressed that could be getting in the way?

As we look to our personal transformation, what are the insights we can glean if we look to this on a more personal level.

What are these barriers that are getting in the way of us making the changes we really want to make?

For example in my own case, I have a metaphor that I am a bit like a hermit crab. I challenge myself forward out of my very protective layer of a house but I can always revert quickly back into my shell, research and process for myself before I go back out and try again.

What is the experience behind why I perceive myself to be similar a hermit crab? Well, because I have managed to go out into the world and forge my way down different, quite strange paths, learning as I went. (I mean from forestry, to archaeology, to work psychology to Chief Talent Navigator is not necessarily linear - particularly for someone with dyslexia and dyscalculia navigating in a foreign language.) But in my mind’s eye, I knew what I wanted to do or become and, while I was scared of the challenges placed in front of me, I took my steps forward because I knew what role I wanted to play in the broader environment and world of work.

What effect does this “hermit crab” like behavior have?

Well, according to my friends and family, my “hermit crab” like behavior makes it hard for them to know how to support me - as I always seem so strong and resolute - and they are not sure where my vulnerabilities are. Which in turn reduces the depth of friendship as it can be perceived as very one-sided.

So a metaphor that served me well in the past as a student, is really no longer fit for purpose as I develop further as a human being, family member, and friend. So my personal barrier to transformation that I am working on using the Magic Maker Mindset is shifting my perception around the support, sharing, and vulnerabilities I share with my family, friends, and yes, now the broader world to create more delight as I continue down my path forward.

So with that, I present to you the opportunity and challenge to ask you how YOU want to Transform via YOUR insights as the Round 2 of the Cheers to Thee in 2023 with the following worksheet:

Transforming Via Your Insights Question 2

1.14MB ∙ PDF File

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That way no matter if it is February 29th or March 1st, you have the opportunity to mark your own calendar as to how you wish to delight in your magical ability to change the experiences, which change the beliefs, which in turn change the behaviors.

As an extra bonus and a preview to the podcast where we will do a deeper dive into the worksheet for Cheers to Thee: Barriers to Transformation: My question to you: What is your Go-To Energy song?

And with that I say, Cheers to Thee and invite you to share with me / us your Transformation Insights and what metaphors you will be addressing

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To learn more, on the Magic Maker Mindset as a primer for a deeper dive: