Step Three in Making Change: Take a Fearless Inventory

In the previous two posts, I’ve shared the first steps in making lasting change: understanding your stress cycle and identifying your one big thing. 

The next step is to take what Immunity to Change creators Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey call a “fearless inventory.” This is a list of all of the things that you are doing (or not doing) that work against your One Big Thing, or your big goal. 

You want this list to be actual concrete behaviors, not a state of mind like “I shut down when there’s conflict.” What are the actual behaviors that you do or fail to do because you shut down? 

For example, if your One Big Thing is to speak up more in meetings, something you’re doing/not doing that works against this goal might be “I send emails after meetings instead of speaking up during them.”

Remember, no one will ever see this (unless you want to show it to someone), so be as brutally honest as you can. If one of your inventoried behaviors is “I check social media on my phone instead of listening in meetings,” put it on there (and I’m guessing most of us are guilty of that at least once or twice). 

Keep your fearless inventory only about the things you’re doing/not doing that are working against your One Big Thing. You might be doing some things that are working towards achieving the goal too - leave those out of this process (but don’t stop doing them!). You also might have an urge to explain WHY you’re doing/not doing the behaviors that are keeping you from achieving your goal. Don’t do that here. Think of yourself as a scientist and be as clinical as possible. You’re collecting data, not explaining why. 

If you have feedback from reviews, coworkers, or family members, you can enter that here as well. For example, if you were told by someone you trust that you seem really checked out in meetings, you can dig under that to see what the concrete behavior is and list it on your inventory (maybe it’s “I don’t make eye contact with anyone during a meeting.”)

Be brave and take an honest and specific fearless inventory, and you’re even closer to making that change you want to make.