All “A’s”  – The 7 Steps to Personal Growth

By Kordell Norton – copyright 2006 – all rights reserved -330) 405-1950

 

It might be a car crash, a job termination, the loss of a loved one. 

It might also be the winning of the lottery, a promotion, a change in

marital status.  No mater the cause, we go through change on an

ongoing basis.  Life seems to be full of resetting the sales to address

the winds of change.  Based on observations I give you the following

7 mental steps involved in change and personal or group growth.

 

1. Angst

Definition: angst [ahngkst] – noun, a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish.

 

Some outside influence or event occurs that changes your life.  Some milestone, event or relationship or new set of priorities occurs.  The resulting stress and angst forces your path to go a different direction.  Do you have a choice?  Not really.  No head in the sand, or “who moved my cheese?” type thinking here.  This is the realm of one of Newton’s laws of physics that a body stays in motion until it is acted upon by another body.  The change requirement is real.  The feeling of dread and anguish at having to deal with the unknown is strong.  All of mankind has the same problem, accepting that something is different and then moving on through the mental stages to come.

 

2. Astound

“Why did this happen to me?”   We are astounded that things are being changed.  We ask, “What about the old ways?”  We look for sympathy from others or look blankly at a new problem and situation, amazed that this new challenge or obstacle came out of now where. 

 

3. Anger

When executives are laid off from high ranking jobs they are given the advice to take a few months and let their heads clear.  The advice is really about having them wait until they get past the anger stage.  When change is forced upon us without our input or opinion, or we feel like our personal right to choose our direction is taken away from us, we all react the same. .  . In anger.  How long does it take to overcome this stage?  Depends on the level of hurt, the perceived injustice we experienced or the health of our self image.  Some get counseling.  Others stew for a life time, failing to forgive self or others.  Notice in our graphic that the Anger stage in on the downward track.  Without moving to the next step the individual continues to go down and down and down . . . .

 

4. Accept

Once the person gets past anger and accepts the new world, the new situation they move to a place of humility.  They think sanely about their situation and get counsel from friends and trusted advisors on the new reality.  Belief and hope help the person feel like they can “get their arms around” this challenge.

 

The question that is asked at this stage is “how am I going to react?”

 

5. Adapt

There is the old story of the man passing others as they traveled toward his town.  “What sort of town is that in front of me, old Man?”  “What was the kind of town you just moved from” he would ask?  If there feedback was positive he let them know their new destination was going to be the same sort of place.  If it was negative, he sadly informed them that they wouldn’t like the new town either. 

 

Our past experiences coupled with current motivations will allow us to adapt to the new challenges.  But adapt we do.

 

Adapt is about the "who does what, where when and why".  

 

In one recent convention the speaker indicated that on a scale of ranking one’s happiness with life on a scale of 1 to 10, the average is about 7.  When someone wins the lottery, they move up to 10, but within a year they are back down to 7.  Research also shows that when some suffers an injury that causes a lifetime loss of sight or use of limbs or similar catastrophe that within 7 to 10 months they are back up to 6 or 7 on the happiness scale. 

 

At the adapt stage we start to call upon the resources in our world to address the new world.  We study and educate ourselves by looking at how others dealt with this problem in the past.  New relationships are formed as we discover “fellow travelers” who we share the same challenge with.  Networks of contacts are created.  People find new jobs and, surprise, find themselves happier than they were prior to Angst.  

 

At the Adapt stage individuals develop new skills and new capabilities that make dealing with the change easier over time.  They stretch and expand their abilities and growth occurs.  It is though the opposition of pressing against gravity and lifting the heavy set of barbells that muscles are developed.  So it is the adapt stage as we experience survival of the fittest and rise to meet the new challenge and the new opposition. 

 

6. Achieve

The learning and new behaviors of Adapt are honed and perfected.  We execute based on the feedback/correction loop of input.  Practice makes perfect and perfect practice makes for success.  We see measurable results, the team moves to High Performance.   New energies are discovered, successes are celebrated, and confidence grows as the rewards of success are enjoyed. 

 

 

 

7. Academic

At Academic, others come to learn.  Others ask for mentoring advice of the sage who fought the good fight and won the battle.  Groups ask the new expert to share their methods for success (big or small) in hopes of cloning the win.  The person moves forward and upward until the next challenge arrives, to move the individual or team through the next round of “A’s”, albeit they are stronger and more compatible than when the last challenge arrived.  And the process starts again. 

 

Question:  What challenges are you currently facing?  Where are you in each of those challenges as it relates to the 7-A’s? 

 

About Kordell Norton - The Top Line Guy

Your organization has a strong interest in the "top line" for growth. As a consultant, speaker, author, Kordell Norton works with corporate, association, education and government organizations who want to focus on branding, sales, marketing, strategic planning/leadership, team building, and customer service.

Kordell was an executive with several multi-billion dollar corporations with executive suite positions in sales, HR, marketing and call centers. As a certified Graphic Facilitator, he uses highly visual processes, along with humor, and entertaining methods for powerful, high energy presentations.

Author of Throwing Gas on the Fire - creating drastic change in Sales and Marketing

He can be reached at (330) 405-1950 or at kordell@kordellnorton.com or at his website -  www.KordellNorton.com