Ouch!

I was lying on the floor this morning trying to unlock a muscle in my back. Those of you that know me are saying “well, how unusual is it for him to be on the floor anyway” but this time it was to stretch. I was doing a back exercise developed by a genius named Pete Egoscue – he saved Jack Nicklaus‘ back among others.
As I was lying there, I thought about what caused the problem. I played golf with the pro last week and he made a few adjustments in my address position which put more stress on my lower back. Like any muscles one hasn’t used in a bit, mine reacted badly. But then again, that’s just how businesses react too.

Even though change is something that’s often needed, it’s just as often accompanied by pain. In business you can’t feel it directly but you become aware of it by the complaints of staff or customers or shareholders. It’s sort of like when our parents would give us awful-tasting medicine and remind us it’s for our own good. I was never going to improve as a golfer starting each swing in a faulty position. Your business is never going to improve if you’re unwilling to change what’s holding it back and put different stresses on it. These stresses may be on areas that haven’t had to work as hard lately – they’ll be sore, they’ll remind you they hurt. The trick is to pay attention, don’t work them so hard that they fail, keep stretching them, and get them stronger.  That’s when that real change becomes the normal, not the new.

What are you stretching these days?