Everyone wants better, brighter, simpler, more joyful, more satisfying, to feel more complete, more whole… Living closer to their truest selves; so that their interior lives and exterior lives are synced-up. To be known and affirmed for who we actually are, not just the face we put on to the world. Most people that I bump into don’t feel as if they’ve “arrived” just yet. That point of nirvana isn’t quite within reach, but they’re still aspiring to see “here on earth as it is in heaven.”    But we’re not there. Not always. And maybe not today. This might feel completely out of touch, like you’ve never felt further from having “arrived” at where you want to be, or maybe today’s a good day and you’re in that neighborhood.    Regardless of where you find yourself, we have to acknowledge that we would like to see some things change. Some big things, on a large scale, and some small things, maybe interior-life things… Like having more peace of mind, or forgiving yourself for that night, or releasing that person from the prison of your mind… but here’s the problem with change.    Change requires change.    And as humans, we’re resistant to change. Because change means uncharted waters. And we’ve inherited this DNA from our ancestors that has evolved over thousands and thousands of years to avoid risk, and change is risky, and so here we are. We want to experience the benefits of change—the fruit, the reward, the achievement or accomplishment or “arrival”—without actually changing anything.    Change requires change.    We see this in our clients at the Emery Agency all the time. A medium sized organization is experiencing problems. They’ve been in business for decades and the landscape is changing so fast and their customers are changing and their employees don’t really feel passionate about the vision anymore… they might be excited about a new product or something, but a product isn’t the business. If the product fails, the entire hopes and dreams of the business can’t ride on it.    So they’re having a bit of an identity crisis. Who are we, how should we behave, what should we care about, what should we invest time and energy into, how do we talk about what we do and why it matters…    So someone recommends they talk to us, they schedule a call and all of a sudden we’re sitting in the same room. They’re talking about all these symptoms that our team has seen time and time again, and we help diagnose what the source of the symptoms are, which is typically identity. Who are we, what are we doing, why does it matter.   We dive into the work and it’s good. We find all sorts of small changes, a handful of big changes, and all the solutions are in alignment with one another… then comes the moment when we actually need to unveil the changes. To begin to implement. And leaders throw on the brakes.    “Wait, wait, wait… What will Steve think of this?” Ok, let’s bring Steve in and talk with him.   “Wait, what about this segment of our customers?” It’s ok, this will work for them, and even if it doesn’t, it’s ok to have a small segment of customers fall off if it means gaining over here.   “Wait, wait, wait…” And around we go—like my 7 year old daughter dilly-dallying at bedtime. Hesitating, halting, stalling… because—guess what—change requires change.    And leaders can talk a big talk about vision and the next 5 years of innovation and how they’re going to beat out the competition, but when the rubber hits the road, their courage is nowhere to be found.    They didn’t actually want change. They wanted a makeover with no interior work done. Like a Queer Eye episode if someone was like, “No, I don’t want to talk about my self-esteem, I just want new pants.” Or an Extreme Home Makeover that was like, “You can change the shingles and shutters, but please leave the inside the same.”    Jesus had words for this in Matthew 23. He was talking to teachers of religious law, and seeing the incongruence between their interior lives and their external presentation, and He says, “Woe to you, scholars… hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones…”    That’s some first-century smack talk. We all want the benefits of change without actually changing anything.    We want the six-pack without sacrificing the nightly ice cream.  We want the vacation house without changing the budget.  We want the safety net without saving money.  We want the success without risking our time and money. We want innovation without failure. We want leadership and authority without embarrassment.  We want the healthy marriage without counseling.  We want kids without the sleepless nights.    If you want the fruit, you have to see the thing through. Change requires change. If there’s something in your life that you want to see change, it’s likely going to require changes in other areas of your life to make that change happen.    And having been in the change-business for over a decade now, I want to share a few prerequisites for tangible, measurable change, that I’ve seen in people’s lives and businesses alike.   The first is the humility to recognize that something needs to change. Our ego can derail healthy change before it even gets a chance to start moving. Our pride can disrupt the productive thoughts that might be leading you towards something meaningful… As soon as you start thinking, “But someone like me shouldn’t have to do that…” you’re already in trouble. You’re already tangled up and there’s no chance for change.    In our branding work, we’re committed to never having to CONVINCE someone they need to rebrand, or change something about their business. That’s way too far a journey for us… It’s way too expensive, way too time consuming… Convincing someone that they need help is exhausting. If someone has already recognized they can’t do it on their own, and they’re demonstrating the humility of asking for help, then it’s worth having a conversation.    So the first piece is humility. Recognizing the need for change.   The next piece is honesty about what the actual problems are. This is sort of a piggy-back on the humility piece, but we have a tendency of waffling on the facts, blurring the symptoms a little bit so that we might evade being “found out” … And this is still rooted in ego. If a CEO gets roped into a meeting with us, she might agree that something needs to change, but she’s likely going to go to the most superficial things, like “Yeah, our website needs to be updated, and maybe we could do a better job telling our employees we appreciate them…”    And so we dig deeper. We’re not as interested in the symptoms as we are discovering the source. And so we play the game with cards face up. Everything on the table. Let’s be brutally honest about what the actual problem is so that we can actually address it.   Like when your doctor asks if you smoke, or your dentist asks if you’re flossing… Lying only harms one person, and it’s you.    Honesty is essential if you’re considering some big life change. And listen, you might actually have a hard time seeing what the actual problem is, and that’s why you need trusted friends around you. You have blindspots. I have blindspots. There are areas of our lives that we just can’t see clearly, and it might be that our biggest area of change is hiding in there.    Humility and honesty go hand in hand. One begets the other.    So once we have an accurate picture of what needs to change, we have to get creative. There may be a thousand ways to tackle this problem, there may only be one or two. But at the end of the day, problem solving requires creativity. Intentionally straying from the worn paths of thought in our minds so as to maybe discover a new way of thinking. People wrongly anchor “creativity” in the world of art and design. I can’t tell you how many leaders have told me, “I’m not creative.” while they’re sitting on top of a $50m company with incredible products and people on staff… Not creative? You’re crazy.    Again, creativity requires humility. It requires vulnerability to propose ideas that may not work. Writer’s rooms at late night shows have this baked into their DNA. Everyone knows that half the jokes won’t work, but it doesn’t mean to not say them. It means to say them, get them out of the way, and help riff on the ones that gain traction.    In doing anything meaningful, there’s a high percentage of failures along the way. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and if you’re doing it well, you’re going to fail along the way.    Try, fail, learn. Try, fail, learn. That’s the wheel of innovation that keeps this whole thing rolling. Again, humility is essential. Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company says, “Innovate or die.” And it’s never been truer than today.    Humility, honesty, creativity… and lastly—courage. The courage to actually implement the change. This is sort of baked into the whole thing, and it’s where this little conversation started, was being brave enough to actually change. Change requires change. We need the courage to actually change. Yes, there’s risk. There’s risk in change. But there’s risk in staying the same. Isn’t there?    You know what will happen if you don’t change your health habits. It’s not rocket science. You’ve seen your family members get sucked into the same problems. You know what will happen if you don’t change your spending habits. It’s not rocket science. The Average American has $100,000 in debt. You’re not an anomaly. Get honest with yourself. You know what will happen if you don’t makes those changes at work. If your teams feel unappreciated, if people feel uninspired… It’s not rocket science.   What are you so afraid of? You might not want to be seen as someone that tried to change and failed, so instead you’ll be known as someone that was always stuck? Stuck in their ways, stubborn, cared more about self-preservation than innovation. That’s not a legacy I want.    I want to always be tinkering with my work. Not only the work I’m doing, but HOW I do the work I’m doing. If something starts to feel rote or uninspiring, I’m going to change it. I’m going to tweak it; iterate it; test it; take notes; get feedback… and hopefully move forward.    You might be in charge of something big like a business or organization or a small team at work, or maybe a family at home, or maybe you’re considered a leader in your group of friends… or maybe the only thing you’re in charge of is yourself. And sometimes you’re the most stubborn with yourself.    If you’re experiencing some sort of frustration… Change is worth it. It’s disruptive for a season, but it’s worth it.    It’s worth it, friends. Change requires change and the change is worth it.    Hope this was helpful. If it was, do something with it.    Make it a good day.