Have you ever played Bananagrams?
It’s something like Scrabble but you create your words freestyle, not on a board. And each person does their own puzzle and competes to finish first when all the tiles are gone. Pretty fun!
Our family loves to play, especially my older daughter.
But I can NEVER beat her!
She is amazing. Is she a genius? No, not in the official sense, anyway (although she is in my heart ;) She’s just super strategic and is willing to play in a way I’m not.
I’m all about building my words and continuing my path, sticking with what I’ve started. She, on the other hand, is willing to take apart words and sections to create new words using the tiles she has just drawn. She makes change! She creates a new path!
There’s an important life lesson in Bananagrams
When something isn’t working, instead of feeling stuck, giving up, and assuming this is always how things will be for you, change your path, create a new system, open up new ways of approaching old problems.
Sounds simple enough, yes. But, why is this hard for so many people? It’s about change and all that comes with that.
We know what we know already. We feel comfortable in the familiar, even if it’s not working – at least we know what it’s like.
Then there’s something called Escalation of the Commitment, where having invested time, energy and resources into something keeps us sticking with that path, even if it is clearly a disadvantage for us to do so.
Allowing change is about breaking out of what we know and allowing something completely different to take shape. We don’t know yet what that will be and what the road will look like, but we begin down the path.
How to begin allowing change
In this blog, I will not be giving tips to change, rather questions to ask yourself around change in your life. After all, self-awareness is always the most valuable tool you have.
If you reflect upon these questions and honestly take a look at what comes up, you will have already begun (in Bananagram terms) to “take apart the words and sections to create new words.”
So, ask yourself these questions, (or journal or meditate upon them)
- Do you know when you’ve hit your wall? When it’s time to change? What is really evident to you at this point?
- What does it mean to you to make a change?
- What will you need to give up to make a change? (Starting on another path, we have to leave the path we’ve been on, and that can feel like a loss)
- What stops you from allowing change? (By the way, this is a huge question. Give yourself time to dig deep and see what you find -- Old stuff? Things you learned along the way? Core beliefs about yourself?.......)
- What do you feel you need to be ready to take step one?
- Is there something in your life now that feels stuck and really needs change?
Remember, taking a new path in life (just like taking apart the words in Bananagrams) isn’t done haphazardly. You have to have some resources in place, some support, some research, and a willingness to discover uncharted territory.
I’d love to hear how you’ve sorted through change for yourself.
And, as always, if you’d like some support and help along the way in navigating change and all that comes with it, I’m happy to help. Give me a call at (626) 836-2023.
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