Initiating change in business, a department, or in our individual lives demands a holistic approach. It requires an open mind, a willingness to engage all senses, and the art of embracing emotions. Shaping one’s mindset, seeking harmony, envisioning possibilities without limitations, finding focus, and assembling the right team – these are the components of the roadmap to achieving a sought-after shift.

SHAPE
Cultivate your mindset
The power of our minds is extraordinary and can influence the trajectory of our lives in profound ways. Reflecting on a personal experience from January 29, 2017, when I received the diagnosis of breast cancer, I made a conscious choice. Rather than dwelling on “why me?” I adopted a mindset rooted in science, growth, learning, abundance, and longevity. It’s also important to recognize that even with a positive outlook, challenges will persist, often marked by tears, pain, and fatigue. This choice demonstrated the power we have within to set the tone for the day ahead.

Whether addressing health issues, or steering transformations in a business or department, reframing the language and stories we tell can pave the way for progress. This shift in perspective might sound like:

• “This isn’t the right time because…” to “Today’s opportunity is…”
• “I can’t possibly…” to “What I can do is…”
• “There’s no time to…” to “The next action I can take to move this forward is…”
• “There are too many distractions…” to “If I focus on…. for the next hour, I can impact…”
• “I am falling apart” to “I am strong, able, and ready.”

By embracing an affirmative and growth-oriented mindset, we empower ourselves to embrace the mini shifts that move us forward.

HARMONY
Achieve Inner Harmony
Perhaps it is time to abandon the idea of work/life balance and move toward whole person harmony. By cultivating a sense of peace with our external environment and within ourselves, we can elevate both our work and our life.  Because the interplay between our thoughts and emotions can either support or hinder our progress, achieving harmony will involve self-reflection to identify sources of conflict and the linked emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. We also need to recognize how our bodies react from head to toe.

Consider a scenario involving an employee violating company policy. On one hand, your professional role requires you to enforce disciplinary actions, and on the other hand, you know this employee and empathize with their personal circumstance. Physical manifestations such as a stomachache and tense shoulders emerge. These are indicators of disharmony.

While no single answer exists for such situations or internal conflicts, certain practices can foster inner and external harmony:

• Practice mindfulness techniques for present-focused stress reduction.
• Clarify personal values to underpin decision-making.
• Reconnect with nature.
• Establish well-defined boundaries.
• Embrace self-acceptance, and acceptance of circumstances and others.
• Remain open to adjustment along the journey.

In attaining harmony, heightened self-awareness emerges, fostering grounded, centered, and confident decision-making.

IMAGINE
Unleash your imagination
With open minds and unburdened hearts, we can then venture into the realm of possibilities, allowing “what if…” to guide our exploration. Imagination is a fundamental cognitive process that fuels innovation, storytelling, and visionary thinking, facilitating the generation of fresh and novel connections.

When we are unfettered by constraints, we can utilize the senses available to us to consider multiple paths before coming to a decision.  A few techniques to apply are to:

• Create mental simulations of your desired experience or outcome.
• Develop a Prototype.
• Express ideas through drawing or painting.
• Engage in role play activities with the data and information available to you.

Once we lay out all the possibilities, we can then place trust in our instincts, and any available data, to commit to the most promising path, and confidently allocate the time, resources, and energy needed to achieve the needed shift.

FOCUS
Find your focus
In a world rife with distractions, maintaining focus needs to become a deliberate choice if we want to maximize our presence, productivity, and overall effectiveness.

We are given a finite amount of time and energy each day so being able to focus is like choosing a mindset, it takes work, commitment, and intentionality. And may mean choosing to say, “No, thank you.” to back-to-back meetings, answering emails at 2 AM, working through the weekend, and being a team player knowing it comes at the cost of our own wellbeing.

To find focus:

• Affirm your end goals daily and say them out loud each morning.
• Minimize electronic interruptions.
• Allocate ‘go days’ and ‘slow days’. ‘Go’ days focus on showing up for meetings with agendas only. No agenda, no meeting. ‘Slow’ days are cleared days to allow time to think, design, and do the work that emerges from the ‘go’ days.
• Declutter mental space by capturing everything consuming space in your mind. Though you may gasp at all that is stored in there, you can also rest easy knowing you have it all in front of you.

When we are clear, calm, and centered we can make exponential progress and also welcome unexpected discoveries that may positively impact the shift we are after.

TEAM
Curate the team you need for the present shift
The people we surround ourselves with influence our thoughts, actions, and outcomes, so it is no wonder that the pursuit of a shift in work or in life requires mindful and deliberate choices. Making these choices means examining your ‘team landscape’ and accepting where you might need to reduce, grow, or leverage your community, partnerships, and relationships.

Because our minds are wired to connect, every interaction with another human gives us the opportunity to offer something of ourselves, and to gain something from others. If we do not let go of those who are not contributing to the shift needed, then there will be no space to invite in those you need. As you build your team:

• Identify the roles, talents, skills, capabilities, mindsets of the team members you need.
• Provide context and the role you wish each person to play on your team.
• Gain acceptance from others to be part of your ‘team’.
• Move past the uncomfortable feelings by reminding yourself that the people you need around you are the ones that will champion your path to achieve the shift identified.
• Trust your body and say ‘no’ when it tells you to.
• View networking as a simple exchange between two people. Start with a ‘hello’ and a question.

The key is to be selective when seeking specific shifts to a business, a department, or a life.

By embracing these interconnected elements—cultivating a growth and affirmative mindset, achieving harmony, nurturing imagination, finding focus, and thoughtfully assembling a team — we create a holistic framework to navigate shifts, seize opportunities, and feel at ease with the decisions we make.

Judy Goldberg is the author of the book, “Wake Up and Wondershift”