Personal Change Reflection

For this assignment, create a new blog post that relates to the personal change blog you've been updating. It's time to reflect on your own experience with change. The post should be about how this experience will help you lead organizational change. Be specific. Consider the following questions when writing:

1. What are your key takeaways from the experience?
2. To what extent were you successful?
3. How would it help you manage personal and organizational change in the future?
4. What lessons can you use when leading organizational change?

1. Change is hard. Old habits die hard. The first few days of giving up soda were a struggle! Once I got past the headaches from the lack of caffiene, I was on the upswing. The more water I drank, the more I liked how it made me feel. I didn't feel weighted down. Actually, the more water I drank, the better I felt. I had more energy, was able to get through my day just as productively as I was when drinking soda, and in the end, felt as if I was doing something good for my health. 

2. I have been fairly succesful. I've dropped some weight even when I wasn't expecting it. Even when taking a trip for work, dealing with the multiple holiday dinners and functions, I have managed to keep on track with maintaining a healthier diet and giving up things in the diet that aren't so good for me. Thanks to feeling better overall, I've made time for getting myself to workout on a more regular basis with more plans going forward. I am scheduled for some followup labs in January with my doctor so I am curious to see if things have improved in my bloodwork. 

3. If I can manage myself and get myself back on track after having let myself go for quite a while, I really feel that I can handle anything thrown my way. Too often, we put ourselves on the back burner and deal with everyone else first. I learned that we must take time and put ourselves first if we expect to be able to tackle everything thrown at us effectively. 

4. When looking at the idea of leading organizational change, I think the biggest takeaway from this would be the first step to change is to start. If we continually procrastinate and put things off, then we will never get anywhere. Change is truly inevitable and we must embrace it. Too often, we deny that change needs to take place. We get comfortable and complacent in our work and many times like keeping the status quo. Unfortunately in today’s world, this just doesn’t cut it. If a company hopes to keep afloat, thrive, and succeed, change is certainly inevitable and leaders must realize when change is necessary. Learning to accept change and find ways to effectively deal with have been a fantastic resource through this course.