Change brings many emotions, often strong ones. Each one packs its own kind of power.

Harness and use the energy of emotion, whatever it is.

These are some of the emotions you may experience during change, and ways you can use them to move you forward:

- Excitement

Use excitement to drive you ahead, ever closer to the desirable future you imagine…and through the sometimes unnerving, sometimes exhilarating process of not quite knowing how something new will work out.

Focus on the benefits of the new circumstances to pull you most powerfully forward.

- Fear

Use fear to help you anticipate things that could go wrong with the change process, and then to plan and take actions to prevent those circumstances from occurring.

Fear can direct you to a safer path through change than you might take if you did not heed its cautionary call.

- Patience

Use the power of patience to summon your ability to attend to planning and the details of implementation.

Use it, also, to increase the confidence and focus of those around you who aren’t seeing the change process as charitably as you are, at the moment. (You may need them to return the favor later).

- Impatience

It’s going to be there, so use it.

The power of impatience can help you delegate or sweep away low priority tasks, so you can focus on what is most essential.

Impatience carries a lot of power…which can be destructive if turned on the people around you, or can propel you forward rapidly, if channeled in positive ways.

- Discouragement

Discouragement often means that plans were too aggressive, or that not enough time was factored in for periodically recharging, regathering energy, and renewing focus.

Or maybe plans for the change process assumed that everything would go like clockwork…and that’s not happening (it usually doesn’t).

Use discouragement to pause and step away for a bit, if you can. Refresh, renew, even if briefly.

Then remind yourself why the change is being made, and how you may benefit from it in some way.

- Confusion

This can occur if the purpose or path through change is obscured, or was never spelled out well in the first place.

Sometimes uncertainty can’t be completely cleared away, of course…it’s just part of the change process…yet there are things that can be done to reduce it.

Focus on the goal, set interim milestones and concentrate on reaching each one. And celebrate in some appropriate way when you do.

- Bargaining

The desire to bargain (and before that, maybe, the desire to yell or complain, if we’re honest) can occur if you feel you’re not being heard.

It can also occur if you’re concerned that plans are not realistic, or the resources needed for change are not being provided.

Express openly, honestly and respectfully what your fears and concerns are. Listen with an open mind. Negotiate or renegotiate agreements, if need be, and if possible.

- The desire to give up

Don’t fight it. This feeling will probably occur at some point, and maybe at multiple points, in the change process.

Just knowing that quitting is an option can take the pressure off, and you realize that you’ve come too far, made more progress than you realized, and really don’t want to turn back, after all.

The uncertainty and energy required for change will clear eventually.

You may even find you’re bored when certainty does return, believe it or not. There’s a lot to be said for the growth that occurs for almost everyone during a change process.

- The drive to keep going, no matter what

Use this drive to push over, around, or through barriers that appear as if they could prevent you from reaching your goal.

And use this powerful energy, if need be, to prove that it’s possible to do what naysayers said couldn’t be done.

This short list has covered just a few of the emotions that are likely to occur at some point during the change process.

Did I cover the emotions you’re most familiar with during the change process?

If not, make your own list, or add to this one.

Consider how you can use each emotion when, and if, it arises during the change process.

Just by anticipating what may occur as you go through the ups and downs, highs and lows, successes and failures that accompany change helps you to prepare for, and be able to make the best of it.

Harness the energy of change to help you move forward.

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Business is a game. It’s a game with high stakes, of course, but a game, nonetheless.

In spite of that, sometimes one’s zip, zoom and zest drain away.

When your enthusiasm has drained away – for any of many possible reasons - there are ways you can get it back.

Use one or more of these ways to get your game back.

1. A goal, or goals

2. Rules

3. An opponent (which may be your own past performance)

4. Feedback

5. Ways to track your progress toward the goal

6. Actions you can take to play the game better and achieve better results, with practice

7. Challenge that’s engaging without being overwhelming

Let’s take a look at each element in a little more detail:

1. A goal, or goals

An easy place to begin when you’ve lost your enthusiasm, is to clarify your goal.

Remind yourself why you do this work (in addition, of course, to getting paid).

Who benefits most from what you do, in addition to you?

What positive impact does your work have for them?

2. Rules

Rules can get complicated, over time.

Unnecessary details can cloud the “how,” even if you’re clear about the “what,” “who,” and “why” of your game.

See what you can simplify.

3. An opponent (which may be your own past performance)

You may have a clear opponent in your game. It may be a competitor you’re trying hard to beat.

Usually the game that pays off best, however, is when you’re competing with your own customer-focused past performance, always trying to improve it.

Choose a worthy opponent that constantly helps you make your best better.

4. Feedback

Engaging games give you feedback.

Business is a game of “Who can satisfy the needs of the customer best?”

Look for ways to get and use strong customer feedback.

5. Ways to track your progress toward the goal

Sometimes the simplest thing you can do is to record something that’s easy to track but significant in terms of leading directly to the desired results.

It’s like a person who’s trying to let go of excess weight who decides to keep a food diary, trying to see what habits may be delaying, or preventing progress.

Paying close attention – as tracking forces you to do – often changes behaviors in a positive direction.

6. Actions you can take to play the game better and achieve better results, with practice

If there’s nothing you can do to improve, there’s no game.

And if there’s something you can do to improve, but you choose not to, there may be a game, but you’re choosing not to play it.

Look around for, and then take the actions you can take to make something work better.

It will, almost inevitably, lead to improved performance and results.

7. Challenge that’s engaging without being overwhelming

Your first challenge, if you’re feeling depleted or defeated, may be to figure out what the game really is that you’re playing, or caught in.

You may discover that the game is one you don’t want to play anymore. Plenty of people have found themselves in that situation at one point or another.

On the other hand, you may find and renew the drive and commitment to drew you to this line of work, or this company.

Maybe you find you need to up the ante, and expect more of yourself and others, and then to make that more possible through various decisions you make and actions you take.

Or – quite the opposite – you may find you need to relax and smell the roses a bit more.

Maybe all you need is to appreciate your work more, and to enjoy the process of doing it (I’m not kidding. Focus on the process…enjoy that…and the results are likely to be more satisfying, as well).

Whatever you find, the sooner you take the time to refresh and recover your game, the sooner you’ll be playing the game you’re really meant to play, and win.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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“I’ve had it! I just want this pile of problems to go away!”

Does that sound like something you’ve said (or a cleaned up version of it)?

The person in this case was overwhelmed and dispirited by the problems of rapid growth, as was his whole team.

“I just want to get things done, and to solve problems so they stay away!” he said, dejectedly.

That sense of frustration, and momentary futility affects startups, mid-size companies, and corporations, as well.

For example, “No one has time to improve the way we get work done,” said a beleaguered colleague recently. She’s a long-time manager at a leading high-tech firm.

“We just have to keep pushing work through the processes we have, hoping they’ll get the work done well enough,” she said, in exasperation.

Surely there is SOMETHING you can do if you’re feeling this way, right?

There is.

Start simply, but start.

One way to begin is by answering one or more of the questions below.

Your answers can guide you to begin making improvements, the benefits of which add up in a big way.

1. What isn’t working?

Make a list.

Start with the things that are causing you and the people at your company the most pain.

Then, in front of that list, put a list of the problems that are causing your customers pain (you know what those things are, right? If not, find out).

2. How do you know you have a problem?

Gather the facts.

You may discover, in the process, that there are, indeed, problems, but they’re very different from what you expected they would be.

3. What does the problem cost you or your company now?

Once again, you may be very surprised. Sometimes problems that seem small are costing you a lot of money, or may in the future.

You won’t know until you check.

4. How does the process work now, before you improve it?

Draw a picture of the process, the way it works now.

Then, ask a sample of other people who use the process to draw a picture of how it works, as they see it.

The differences may be eye-opening. This may show you that another problem is also in play: poor communication.

5. Who do you do your work for?

Be clear about who the customers are for the work that you, specifically, do. In many cases, this is someone inside your company.

6. How do your customers want the work done?

These tell you what your customers’ requirements are. These often include details such as what your customers mean, specifically, when they say they want something that is “on time,” ”accurate,” or “cost-effective,” for example.

Customer requirements are your standard for success.

Know what they are and meet them.

7. If you don’t know what your customers want from you, how can you find out?

Then, do that.

8. If the process were working perfectly, what would it be like?

Imagine the process working easily and effectively, with little or no waste.

Describe and then write down a few of the most significant details in that perfectly-working process.

9. How is that perfect process different from the way the process works now?

Make a list of the differences between the way things could be, and the way they are.

10. Who are the customers your entire company does its work for?

These are the people who ultimately pay your salary when they decide to continue to do business with you, and to refer you to others.

11. What do your company’s customers want?

Make sure everyone in your company knows who your shared customers are, and what success means to them in terms of the products or services they buy from you.

12. How you know this is what they want?

Often, companies guess about what their customers want. Or they may assume they know better than their customers do about what’s important or valuable to them.

Few companies last long if they follow this, “We know what’s best for you” strategy with customer needs and requirements.

Don’t be one of them.

These 12 questions, and your answers to one or more of them can go a long way toward helping you start to solve the problems that typically cause you pain now.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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