Think ONE Thing: How to Manage Change (Part 2)

To quote the internet, “Everything happens so much.” There’s no coincidence that the last few years have been the rise of a nihilistic sense of humor. But you may be surprised to learn that such 2020s-coded jokes such as the “This is fine” dog are not new. That poor pooch has been enduring the flames for over a decade now. It turns out that for many people, the world kind of always feels like it’s on fire.

Well, we’re not here to tell you that the world hasn’t been on fire. We’re here to share a knowing glance and try to help.

In our last issue, we discussed why people struggle with change. It turns out we’re hard-wired to hate anything that makes us feel uncomfortable. We must choose to be adaptable so that we can grow beyond our natural limitations and use change to our advantage.

In this newsletter, we’re going to dig into how to overcome change fatigue with the ONE Thing. Because everything is probably going to keep on happening and the only way to make it through it to narrow our focus and push ourselves forward with the power of momentum, one day and ONE Thing at a time.

Overcome Change Fatigue with The ONE Thing

If you’ve heard people around the office talking about feeling bone-weary but not quite burnt out, changes are that too many changes are to blame. They may be suffering from change fatigue. According to Forbes, change fatigue is characterized by being passive-aggressive, complacent, and disengaged. Time has called it The Great Exhaustion.

The first step to any meaningful change is acknowledgment. As Gary and Jay write in SHIFT, “When a market shifts there is only one thing to do—shift with it.. [you must make] a mental shift and an action shift” (p. 23). Adapting your actions successfully can only happen if you acknowledge that the situation has changed. Overcoming change fatigue throws in one more requirement. You must also believe you have power, that your actions can affect your outcome. You need to get unstuck.​

When someone feels powerless, it can be because they are trying to control things that they are unable to. We’re written about how you can regain peace by narrowing your focus onto what you can truly control, and that’s a good first step to overcoming change fatigue.

Identify a small, single action that, once taken, helps with the overwhelm. Ask yourself:

Imagine that you know a real estate agent who is feeling overwhelmed because they can’t seem to convert buyer leads into signed agreements. The potential buyers come to their appointments, but leave without committing to working with your pal. The ONE Thing that they could do to regain control in their situation is to practice and roleplay. They cannot control whether someone signs with them, but they can control how confident they feel in going through their buyer consultation and get better at showcasing their value proposition.

By doing ONE Thing, we regain a sense of power. We also have the potential to kickstart a chain reaction that propels us toward success.

Shoot for the Moon with the Power of Momentum

The crazy thing about doing ONE Thing is that, if you keep doing the next ONE Thing, you can end up in places you never thought possible. “Success is built sequentially,” write Gary and Jay. And it compounds. This means that small feats add up--even if you’re starting out in a dumpster fire. Even if you’re knocking over a single domino, that force over-time could take you to the stars.

Surviving change and thriving isn’t about doing everything all at once, it’s about adapting a little at a time.

Let’s return to our imaginary agent friend. Maybe after taking some time to practice their consultation, they’ve found that they are getting signed agreements but now are having difficulty negotiating offers for their clients. Just because they did the first ONE Thing when they narrowed their focus, doesn’t mean they are off the hook. They now have to figure out the next ONE Thing. That may be speaking to other agents who are working in their market, having a colleague or mentor review their offers and see where they could improve, or it might be studying their comps. Each of these things could be the ONE Thing that unlocks their next skill-level and puts them on the path to changing their business and life.

In The ONE Thing, Gary and Jay talk about a process called Goal Setting to the Now. In this framework, the idea is to connect our current actions to our future outcomes. When the future is not yet clear, it can feel frustrating to not be able to plan. However, if we are connecting one right action with the next right action, we can feel confident that we’re not straying too far off-track.

Gary says “You cannot control outcomes, but you can guarantee that you can do the actions that are most likely to get you where you want to go.” Success is about doing the right thing, not doing everything right. When we’re overwhelmed with changes, keeping one foot in front of the other is more than enough.