What are you pretending to ignore?
The Change Question: What sacred rule will you break?
I journal most mornings, and one of the three questions I answer is:
What do you notice?
It’s there to invite me in to be more present to what’s actually going on.
What do I notice in front of me? The weather. The desk. The vibe.
What do I notice, somatically, about how my body’s showing up?
What do I notice about how I’m feeling about things?
What do I notice about what I’m noticing, about what’s grabbed my attention?
What do I notice about what I’m trying to ignore, that I know to be true nonetheless?
Those dagnabbit* moments
(*To be clear, I don’t actually say dagnabbit, but I’m trying to keep this Suitable for Work.)
Part of the power of journaling is a forcing function to notice what’s on the periphery. It’s happened often enough that it’s a familiar experience.
For me, it goes like this …
I’ve been feeling there’s something flitting through my consciousness, something disconcerting.
I finally turn to face whatever it is that’s been lurking there to see what it is.
I realize I’ve been trying to deny that it’s been there, hoping it might just get disappointed in my lack of attention, and go away ...
It hasn’t gone away.
And, dagnabbit*, now I’m looking at it, it’s pretty clear and obvious.
I’m going to have to acknowledge it.
And I’m going to have to face the consequences of my two choices: to do something about it, or to not do something about it.
What’s in your shadows?
Here’s what’s lurked there over the years for me, things that I’ve been pretending weren’t true:
Something’s off with someone on my team.
Something’s off with my boss.
The “why” of my change project isn’t compelling or even interesting.
My change sponsor doesn’t know what they’re doing and doesn’t really care.
We don’t have the resources we need.
We don’t know what success looks like.
There’s no strategic reason for this.
I’m depleted and exhausted.
There’s not enough change capacity in the organization to absorb this.
The problem is we’re not working hard enough.
And of course, my magical thinking, aka denial, about all of the above.
