Struggling with change is natural. Mandating or even activating change in others is even harder.

Which is precisely why you should hear what Jacob M. Braude said: “Consider how hard it is to change yourself, and you’ll understand how foolish it is to think you can change someone else.”

That stopped you in your mental tracks, didn't it? Why? Because it's true.

But sitting back, being the kind of person or leader who can't activate change in yourself or in others, isn't a winning strategy at work or in life either.

So what do you do? Well, it helps to define it simply. In my keynote and workshop called the Change Funnel, I define change this way: "Anything that disrupts the way things are.”

Those disruptions can be big or small, but that simple definition puts change in perspective. It's happening around you daily, in ways so small you've stopped noticing. In fact, what you are used to now that you are struggling to change was once something else.

So think of change differently. It isn't a mountain you climb all at once. It's about taking the steps required to go over or around it, to get where you're trying to go, one step at a time.

Since the only constant in this world is change, being adaptable and activating it in yourself and others is essential.