“Man needs difficulties, they are necessary for health”
Back in the 1980s Alexei Sayle was part of an angry new wave of stand-up comedians. I remember at University going to watch him and laughing hysterically, whilst at the same time feeling a nervous discomfort, as he ranted violently against privileged middle class students.Alexei Sayle says he is calmer now and there is less chance of violence. In the photo that goes along with the article about his first stand up since 1996, he is smiling benignly from under a greying beard. The journalist asks him “Why come back now?” He quotes Carl Jung - “Man needs difficulties, they are necessary for health” and goes on to say how, whatever age we are, we need challenges.
Dan Ariely did some research on what motivates people and some of you may have seen the video we posted on our Facebook page recently.It seems that purpose, and often challenging purpose, motivates us.It is certainly what got me walking 50k with friends for Macmillan Cancer Support the other day; what drives me to keep building my business; and today, what made me stick with pollarding the overgrown trees in my front garden even when my hands were aching and my back was sore.I was talking to a senior nurse recently. A year ago, she had taken on a part-time clinical education role with a University. It had been an unexpected opportunity. She had not courted it, never envisaged lecturing forming part of her career, and was uncertain about taking the work on. She described the past year to me as “exciting and petrifying, all at once”. She said, “I am not sure I can say I enjoyed it. I was way out of my comfort zone.” Would she do it again? Yes she would.
As leaders, our role is often to encourage people to step out of their comfort zones and train, cheer- lead, cajole and congratulate them as they do. We also have to step out of our own comfort zones and we have to do this consciously, knowing that we will be stepping into the unknown and challenging ourselves not just with the big bold actions, but also with the small everyday shifts of behaviour that make change happen.We may risk failure but we may gain health.