How Fast Can You Change?

It’s been an interesting week. One week ago had you asked me ‘How’s business?’ I would have said ‘Things are looking up and the best they’ve been looking for 18 months.’ I had 4 projects on the boil. I was excited.

And, within a matter of days, everything changed. Whilst one smaller project came through, my biggest opportunity was delayed by one to two months and two others were effectively cancelled.

Then a few other things crashed… I received a few big bills I wasn’t expecting; my car developed a problem with its headlights and the screen on my computer now needs replacing.

Emotionally, I sunk like a rock in a pond. I couldn’t believe I was back in a situation where I couldn’t pay my bills. I thought I had left that behind some months earlier.

Anyway, a friend had invited me to a two-day seminar as his guest. This was not only a chance to rest, relax and recharge my batteries; I was hoping to learn something that would give me the boost I sorely needed.

On the Myers-Brigg scale I’m an introvert. This means I recharge by spending some time alone. This translated into a tough first day at the seminar. Even though I was surrounded by a couple of hundred excited fellow participants, I really didn’t want to talk to any of them. Mostly I didn’t. I was physically tired and emotionally drained. Poor me… You can probably hear the violins playing in the background…

The next day I was starting to recharge. I had been inspired by some of the ideas presented at the conference. And, by the middle of the day I was happily chatting away to anyway within earshot. How quickly things can change.

Today, I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am. I didn’t set my alarm this early, I just woke up and unfortunately I was wide-awake. After several long days this was the last thing I wanted. And, what could I do… I just lay in bed. For better or worse the agony was over soon enough as I had to get out of bed at 6:00am to make it to a meeting of a mastermind group.

I was dreading today. It looked like a day of survival – just make it through to bed tonight. Surprisingly, as I write this it’s almost midnight. The thought of not blogging today certainly crossed my mind. Would my streak of 165 days straight be over?

From morning dread to midnight inspiration… I’ve had a big change today. In fact, it’s been a really successful day. I created a partnership with my good friend Helen to launch a training event for speakers and we have several people attending already. I presented with Helen and Michael at National Speakers tonight running a Speakers Idol and I have walked away with several speaking opportunities all from tonight. It’s hard to believe things could change so quickly.

QUESTION: How quickly can you change? And, what do you need to make change happen for yourself?