The internet is creating transparency in unprecedented ways – and with it, unprecedented change is occurring. Witness the heretofore private lives of celebrities and supposed thought leaders, the furor over the Catholic Church’s handling of priestly misdeeds, the pending audit of the Federal Reserve . . . and on and on.

The old way – the world as we know it of being able to hide secrets – is rapidly coming to a close. In its place is the 24-7 World Wide Web where information is increasingly available about everything and everyone. The founder of Facebook says that privacy is old-fashioned. Each week brings a new scandal.

How is transparency affecting you, your business, the institutions to which you belong? Your political party, religious organization, favorite athletes? How do you feel about the death of privacy? Will it impact you, or is it limited to well-known individuals?

This “end of the world as we know it” is completely predictable given Alvin Tofler’s assertion that the rate of change doubles every ten years. How are you coping with rapid change? Are you able to be resilient and move with it? What parts of rapid change have given you problems?

The British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues virtually unabated, and it may continue for as long as the three months which are required to bring another drilling platform online.

Net worths of many hard-working people have been decimated by declines in the value of securities and real estate.

Further, our government now seems to be securely in the control of big corporate and banking interests. There is spreading fear that the best days of the United States are behind us.

Is this the end . . .? Or could it be the beginning?

In your life, have you waited until absolute crisis to make changes that you knew you needed to make long before? Is human nature often to procrastinate until action moves beyond “optional” to “required”?

How do you feel about these crises? Are you concerned about the end of the world as we know it? Are you entertaining apolcalyptic visions? Do you believe that we will resolve these problems and issues?

How do these kinds of issues affect you on a day-to-day basis? What kinds of changes in your decision-making have occurred that relate to these kinds of issues? Is it the end of the world as we know it – to be followed by a world that is better?

Worry is irrational, when you think about it, because worry falls into two basic categories: things we can’t do anything about and things that we can.

For the things we can’t do anything about, worry is needless suffering. When we can do something about what worries us, we can take action. Of course, this is a simple approach – but it makes sense. Sometimes, the hardest thing has been to do what makes the most sense.

Worrying is a habit that we most likely were taught by powerful role models in our lives. Like most habits, it can be changed with focus and attention.

What have you been worrying about that you can’t change? Can you give up at least that worrying?

What have you worrying about that you can change? What actions can you take to address those issues?

What do you do – and how do you become – someone who deliberately engages the uncertainty of whether or not you can accomplish something amazing and fantastic?

Is it like seeing a cliff as you’re floating in the river, and you see a cliff, and you’re inspired to swim to it and jump? Or is it more deliberate and measured like deciding to climb a frozen, distant peak – and acquiring all manner of ice picks and gear to make the trek?

No matter your personal style – and there are, obviously, infinite variations – your intending to engage greatness, as you alone define it, necessarily engages uncertainty because nothing is certain except change.

Making friends with uncertainty and allowing it to co-exist with you is a strategic skill that is well worth cultivating. How is your friendship between ambition and uncertainty? Are they on talking terms? What can be done to have them be best friends forever?

What’s your potential?  Are you living up to it?  How do you know when you are or you aren’t?  What can you do about it . . . either way? Do you use your potential only as a means of motivating you, or have you used it in the past as a way of punishing yourself when you’ve focused on not living up to it? Is your perception of your potential a moving target that has mirage-like qualities?

Potential means “the inherent capacity for coming into being.” Potential from an engineering perspective roughly means the capacity – or the ability – of a structure to bear a specific load.

For human beings, our potential is probably less a fixed number than a range of possibilities that can be impacted – positively or negatively – by a tremendous range of variables.

How much do you access or consult the idea of your potential with the intention of being motivated and inspired by it?  Less pleasantly, how frequently have you consulted your potential – and the difference between where you are and where you could be – as a means of beating yourself up?  What is the optimal relationship to potential?

How are you at maintaining balance in your life?  Everyone in our culture seems to be busier and more rushed than ever before, and balance is a much-needed issue for improvement for many people.  In our practice, we ask our clients to focus weekly on balance of mind, body and spirit.

Greek Philosopher Euripedes said: ”The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, to acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.”

Generally, what seems to work well on a daily basis to balance the demands of our professional lives is time – however small – for: exercise, healthy eating, family and friends, romance, service and quiet reflection to connect to nature or spirit as you choose.

What changes can you make in your daily life to experience greater degrees of balance?  What are your secrets to balance? How able are you to shift to being balanced when you realize that you need to do so?

In the movie, “Yes Man,” Jim Carrey is challenged to change his self-talk of habitually saying “no” to almost everything to, “Yes, I will do that.” It’s a great premise in a movie that received mixed reviews, and Carrie’s performance illustrates the huge changes that can result from shifting one’s perceptions.

Because his character, Carl Allen, tells himself that he will say “yes” to everything, there are some admittedly wacky results, but also many poignant moments that reveal themselves.

When our self-talk permits us to think freely from an open mind to consider possibilities other than what we have been conditioned to hold as “the answer,” surprising growth and evolution can occur.

How has your self-talk been about an automatic and reflexive “no” – perhaps learned from a parent who modeled that behavior when you were growing up? What would happen if your self-talk allowed you to think more creatively? Have you observed anyone who could serve as a role model for you whose behavior indicates openness in her or his self-talk? How can you shift your self-talk to diminish your limitations?

Two nights ago, I attended an event at the new Grammy Museum featuring Tom Morello (guitarist for Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine and in his solo incarneration, “The Nightwatchman”). He was interviewed for an hour on stage and then he played six songs alone with his acoustic guitar.

Tom blends politics and music. He talked about how he went to Harvard (unusual for a rock star) with the stated intention of “steeling himself” to be a force for positive change. He talked of his hopes and how they matured over time . . . . and how his hopes had to mature with him.

How do your hopes compare to your hopes in your late teens? How have your hopes changed? What have you given up on, left behind, abandoned? Are there areas where your hope is as strong or stronger than ever?

How big are your hopes? How do you view people who live out their hope for change on a global level?

Habits are simply patterns of behavior that occur almost without thinking . . . kind of like living on automatic pilot.

We conclude this week’s conversation about changing habits with thoughts on habitual thinking – i.e., pre-existing assumptions, perceptions, and attitudes.

Can you think of any situation or person where you have had a limiting point of view . . . a set of old assumptions . . . the flavor of “you know how they are”?

Habitually assuming based on old perceptions is an opportunity to shift to fresh, objective thinking.

Try to open your mind to the reality that situations and people actually can change for the better. Don’t limit this “new thinking” to others . . . give yourself a break, too, and examine outdated habitual ways of thinking about yourself.

Consider the implications of an old Spanish proverb: “Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.” If that’s so, then make them GREAT HABITS.

Copyright E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

The conventional wisdom is that it takes 21 consecutive days to change a habit . . . and the point is that sufficient time is needed to turn an idea into the ruling reality.

Here’s what I’ve seen work:

* Make a tracking chart and post it somewhere visible;

* Include the benefits of the change in the chart with both words and images;

* Track it with someone else who genuinely supports you with no judgment.

We’ve also used the game of starting over at Day 1 if there is a day when the new habit is not followed. This is a very effective results strategy because, if you’re really honest, you’ll find that eventually you will have 21 consecutive days under your belt.

What habit would you like to put in place over 21 days? To whom would you make it known? What are the benefits of that change?

Don’t just read this!!! CHANGE A HABIT FOR THE BETTER!!!

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.