Your principles should be set in concrete, but not your methods

By Pat Mesiti

Change is the only constant in life. As a motivational speaker, my life has been all about helping people. You see, I learned that the principle is ‘Help People’. Now, my method is normally to speak publicly, but I discovered other methods to help people. One of my gifts is the ability to raise finance for charities. Another one is to coach people, one-on-one, which I use in a corporate setting. I didn’t have to be on a stage all the time to be helping people. The principle is to help people, but the method changed to helping charities raise money and coaching a small circle of people.

It is amazing how people can stick to one method of doing things. Some towns still ring the church bell because that's the way people used to announce church hundreds of years ago. Now they ring the church bells and everybody thinks it is a wedding. The congregation has never stopped to ask if this method is working or if there is a better way. 

As great as Henry Ford was, he had poor people skills. When people wanting to buy his Model T Fords started asking him for a different colour car, he would answer, 'You can have any colour you want as long as it is black'. That's when his business started to decline. He believed that the Model T ended the need for any other car.

In the movie ‘Five Easy Pieces’, Jack Nicholson goes into a restaurant and asks for a side order of toast and when he is told it is not on the menu he comes up with a solution. He orders chicken salad on toast. Then he instructs the waitress saying, ‘No mayonnaise, just butter and hold the chicken salad’.

Challenge

If what you are doing is not working, you can either look for somebody to blame or you can look for a solution. You can find comfort that others are in the same boat and have a pity party. Or you can rationalise things and say, ‘That's the way life is!’ Or you can be willing to change. If something is not working, don't be afraid to change the method. Change is the only constant in life.  

Pat Mesiti International Motivational Speaker gives you principles to soar higher!
(excerpt taken from Pat Mesiti’s new book “Soaring Higher”)