“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” Lao Tzu

How often do you hear those famous three words: “People Don’t Change”? The continuously “connected” state that results from the over-stimulated technology world (as you are reading this post!) might require personal change.

Change can be good, but some principles should never change. For a long distance endurance athlete (cycling, running, swimming, cross country skiing, etc.) the long slow distance workout is a key component within the training plan that will result in positive benefits over time. For every new technique, training tip, high intensity cross fit workout, they all offer benefits but are not the same principal benefits as a long distance workout.

Change for an entrepreneur is constant within the roller-coaster ride of business. The difficult item in many cases is not to be so reactionary and gravitating to new technology. Changing your customer service methodology, process and mindset might make sense, but the general principal of “under promise and over deliver” to customer questions, issues and solutions does not change.

The entrepreneur and athlete mindset are similar in many areas. However, simple strategies will result in lasting change. There is no doubt about it, change is very difficult and requires intensive work.

The P.I.S.C Concepts for Change Thoughts

The following categories can be reviewed for your own change as an entrepreneur and Athlete.

Patience:

1. Entrepreneur – Patience is a difficult component to change, but what items will have the most impact on your employees and customers by just practicing a bit of patience. Real change means not sending the aggressive email, dealing with a tough partner or vendor issue with delays in the products or services.
2. Athlete – Calming the mind is imperative for success. What’s the plan to handle “panic stress” and staying more present?

Improvisation

1. Entrepreneur– When bootstrapping and starting new companies, changing the mindset to not outsource, but using your current team to figure it out internally to save money. Even after success, keeping a boot strapping mentality and planting the seeds to cover the future “WINTER’s” that will happen.
2. Athlete – Practice real change and a simulation on how to really suffer and deal with massive uncomfortablility through a new method. If you have stomach distress when training hard, change your diet and try ways to balance the adversity with new products. There is always a solution, which might be only eating with no liquids or the reverse. Time and time again athletes end a race with a DNF because they don’t know how to improvise and not panic which is the natural mechanism.

Stamina

1. Entrepreneur – The issue is not usually a challenge for an entrepreneur until a major health issue happens that can weaken stamina. Without health stamina you have no business.
2. Athlete – The challenge is not normally physical challenge; it’s changing the mind and building mental stamina. I think Matt Fitzgerald’s new book states so well ” How Bad Do You Want It”. Time for a plan to change your mental stamina.

Curiosity

1. Entrepreneur– When was the last time you became curious of the ramifications of firing your top two largest clients that have the lowest profit margins, and you only retain them because of their marque name? Curiosity change is hard of course, but many times massive disruptions will transform the business (both up and down).
2. Athlete – Curiosity with respect to new products, technologies, shoes, etc. is a constant with athletes. The key is to change this mindset and close down the outside influencers and reduce the curiosity a bit. On the other hand, curiosity can change the mindset of what is really possible if you tried an event or sport completely outside of the norm. For example, are there benefits from playing golf, Frisbee football, cross country roller ski racing, bowling to your life and current sport specialty. Forget about just the norm, yoga, Pilates, strength training and go way out there with curiosity change.

Change is hard; the key is focus on the right kind of change (or not) for your own unique situation. Sometimes the toughest change is to change your mind to not keep changing everything and be consistent above anything else.