Talking about change isn’t change. And change is not progress. It’s not. Talking is talking and … change is … well … it’s change. It might be progress later when the changes are implemented and have proven themselves successful, but not at the moment you speak them aloud (alone or with someone else to hear you). I think we get this in general, but seem to shelve it at work. We talk a lot about change at work, yet essentially change very little, so lots of progress eludes us and frustration mounts.
The thing is, this is one of those embarrassing situations where you can only say “Duh. How did you think it would go?” If, as cheap as talk is, that’s all I had to do to start the epic transformation of my life, I would be in front of the mirror right now blathering myself into a 20 lb weight loss.
Talk is fine, but walking your talk is the only thing that can put you on a new path. Once on that path, after traveling it for a while, you’ll be able to evaluate how it’s all turning out … and keep what’s working or make additional changes. All of this works against our instant gratification culture, but works incredibly well with something I like to call Reality.
Reality is not a drag; being incompetent working within the framework of reality to the point where you can alter it reasonably and methodically surely is.