On Being Hot and Cold
If you don't refreeze, you just end up wet
This year’s 1 September Project cohort is full, but you can still set one big goal for yourself to crush before the end of 2025.
If you need an incentive, I‘m hosting Ruck 2025, a virtual ruck challenge where you will join an online community with a training plan developed by Coach Casey of Phalanx Performance to get you ready to ruck 20 miles with 25 pounds in 2025. The profits will go to help fight Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP), a rare genetic disorder that causes bone to form in muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues, effectively creating a second skeleton that progressively restricts movement.
Plus, you get a cool T-shirt and a finisher’s patch if you earn it.
Why the change you make doesn’t stick:
I joined the Marines knowing I wanted to be a Recon Marine. The one thing that was holding me back was my lackluster swimming skills.
So I started going to the pool with a friend who was a good swimmer. After a few weeks of coaching and regular swimming, I felt pretty good about my chances of passing the Recon selection.
Unfortunately, about that time, our training would ramp up, and I wouldn’t be able to go to the pool for a few weeks.
When things settled down, we would start over, but each time it seemed like I was back to square one.
The problem wasn’t a lack of desire or effort; it was not persevering long enough to let the ice refreeze.
There is a concept in change management known as Lewin’s model.
If we want to make a lasting change, we first need to unfreeze from our current state.
If I have a block of ice and I want to turn it into a nice ball of ice to drop in a glass of good Irish Whiskey, I first need to melt the ice.
Next, I need to enact the change. Think of this as pouring the water into a round ice mold.
You now have round water, but it is only keeping its shape because of the mold. The change has been made, but it is tenuous at best.
This is where most change fails, whether it is a habit or an organizational culture.
We get to the point where we have what we want, but we celebrate too soon.
We need to refreeze by keeping at it and reinforcing the change until it is once again as solid as ice.
As an old boss used to say, “Professionals don't practice until they get it right; they practice until they can’t get it wrong.”
Until next week,
Refreeze! and Keep Walking Point
"In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed" — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Hell yeah John. Loved this one. Keep refreezing 👊🏻