Companies do not disrupt, people do. You drive corporate innovation and disruption through personal innovation and disruption. So how do you disrupt yourself? Here are strategies to disrupt yourself for greater success in changing times.
1. LOVE YOURSELF
This might be the hardest thing to do for many of us, but it is a game changer. Pause and think of the people you love in your life for a second. Your parents, kids, friends, your first lover, your partner, the person you’re falling in love with. You can make a rich list of people and all the different kinds of love you feel for them. You missed one person, however. I bet there’s one person who doesn’t appear on your list. You. One of the advantages of living long is learning to love yourself and having a loving relationship with others and yourself. Love transforms from selfless love, where we give ourselves to another person, to self-love, where we start to practice self-compassion and preservation, somewhere in mid-life.
But you don’t need to wait until you’re older to love yourself. Imagine all the things you do for your loved ones and apply them to yourself today. When was the last time you gave yourself a gift? Told yourself you are beautiful, inside and out? How about telling yourself, I love you, out loud?
Being kind, forgiving, and affectionate to yourself can make you more resilient and adaptable. This will make you more thoughtful, more forgiving, and affectionate toward everyone else.
2. Start Something Even Though You Don’t Know How It Will End
Great projects are ambiguous, whether at work or in our lives. We start them not because we know how they will end but because that journey of discovery feeds our souls. The best thing you can do is work in small bursts and then see if the work is still meaningful. Six weeks is just the right amount of time–not too short that you can’t see progress, and not too long that you feel like you’ve wasted your time if you need to switch directions.
Do you have six weeks? Start something.
Older people have no patience for doing things they don’t like and plenty of hunger for doing what they love. They know time is precious and not infinite, something the Pandemic brought home for many of us regardless of age.
3. Play to Your Distinctive Strengths
How do you identify what you do well? Start by asking the following questions:
- What skills have helped you survive?
- What makes you feel strong?
- What exasperates you about others?
- What made you different, even an oddball as a child?
- What compliments do you shrug off?
- What are your hard-won skills?
- What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Once you can match your strengths to unmet needs it is also important to make sure you are passionate about the work. Don’t be surprised if you are overwhelmed by new tasks, new people, new information, and unforeseen obstacles. You are at the bottom of the S-curve now so this is to be expected.
Final Words
Success in these changing times is exploring the unknown, making yourself comfortable with ambiguity, and realizing it is never too early or too late to start something you love. You might transform people’s lives in the process, including your own.
Article Credit: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/7-ways-to-disrupt-yoursel_b_9196022 https://www.fastcompany.com/90791092/3-strategies-to-disrupt-yourself-for-greater-success-in-changing-times
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