Personal innovation is rarely a straight path. It’s filled with setbacks, frustrations and moments of self-doubt. There’s no guarantee that your efforts will pay off immediately and sometimes it might feel like you’re moving backwards instead of forward. But real growth comes from trusting the process, not fixating on immediate results.
When you innovate yourself, you’re playing the long game. It’s about making small changes, consistently challenging yourself and trusting that over time, these shifts will lead to real transformation. Understand that not every step will be a victory and that’s okay. Growth often looks messy, with moments of doubt and frustration, but it’s in these struggles that real progress happens.
For instance, if you’ve committed to changing how you approach your work or relationships, there will be times when it feels like you’re not making progress. Maybe you’re trying to become more assertive as the business owner, but the first time you speak up, it doesn’t go well because your team isn’t used to your new approach. Perhaps they’re surprised, resistant, or uncertain about your change in demeanour. In this moment, you might feel disheartened, thinking that your attempt to assert yourself has failed. But the truth is, you’ve just uncovered an important insight: the culture needs to shift. For too long, being passive or avoiding conflict may have created a situation where your voice was less impactful and the team became too accustomed to you staying silent. Instead of giving up, trust that with each attempt, you’re learning and growing. The process of changing how you lead is in its early stages. Progress is rarely linear - it’s in the trying, the failing and the trying again that personal innovation truly takes shape.
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