Thinking Makes It So
An interview with Meaghan Mulligan-McGinley. Edited by Michelle Pauk.
“I wanted to talk to you about my journey in understanding how to adopt change and to appreciate change instead of being victimized by it. I believe in being a change ambassador and embracing change, but when it comes to you personally–be it your work life or personal life–change is still uncomfortable.”
As an agile coach, Meaghan is a champion for change and personal responsibility. And yet when faced with an unexpected workplace change, she found herself struggling to embrace the new situation and feeling like a victim of her circumstances. Meaghan shared with me some reflections on a mindset shift she experienced that helped her engage with the change in a powerful new way.
Through reading, her yoga practice, and self-reflection, Meaghan has found inspiration and choice in change where she had trouble seeing it before. A key insight from these reflective practices is the realization that she has choice in which thoughts she attends to. “There’s a lot of self-control you have to exercise,” she shares. “Are these thoughts serving me? Are they serving the better good of my colleagues? Are they serving the better good of my family? It’s all tied together. You aren’t a separate person at work than you are at home. It’s all who I am, and it all impacts one another.”
“I had to change my way of thinking because it wasn’t serving me. I was bigger than that. I was bigger than the impediment that my thoughts were putting there. My thoughts were telling me the change is going to be negative, so I tried to flip that narrative and say, ‘I don’t necessarily know if it’s good or bad, but I’m going to only think good thoughts about it and control my mind because that’s the only thing I can control. I can’t control the situation.”
This realization has inspired some behavioral shifts for Meaghan. “In meetings I’m trying to become more of an active listener and not allow my own bias to take my thoughts to a negative place. By doing so, I find I’m a happier person. I can be more mindful when it’s time to unwind at night and actually get some sleep and take care of my healthy habits. When you’re holding on to an unknown fear, it really affects your health. I was so tired of giving that power to something that was made up in my mind.”
Beyond her own well-being, Meaghan sees the potential impact of modeling healthier responses to change on her family and her colleagues. “As a mother, you have children who are watching how you cope and how you respond in difficult times. You have to be a role model. This is true at work too. If you’re in a meeting and you handle something difficult with dignity and grace, others are going to see that. You’re equipping other people with the ability to handle difficult times if you can show them and model that behavior.”
When viewed from this angle, each new change offers an opportunity for learning about resilience, openness, and personal responsibility. “Trust the process,” Meaghan advises. “If you keep at it, and keep a conscious mind about it, you will see the change. Others will see the change too. And then you see the change happen in your colleagues, your peers–you’ll see ripple effects. All because of the choice you made, which was bigger than you at the time, and you didn’t know it.”
