*Are You a Change Artist or Change Challenged? (a Quiz)*

We human beings are genetically programmed to be Change Challenged—this means you tend to react negatively and contract when faced with uncertainty, change, challenge or conflict situations. Of course, you may find that some change situations you actually welcome and the change brings a sense of renewal to your life.
However, we all face changes that we don’t want or expect such as sudden economic downturns, or illness or death or taxes. The good news is that your can re-program yourself to respond more proactively sooner, and to stay centered during change and challenge …in short to be a Change Artist. In fact, you may already have re-trained yourself to be a Change Artist in certain areas of life. See how you do on this quiz.

What’s Your Default?

After your initial reaction has worn off – what do you do? Before you start the quiz it helps to think of the last time a change was thrust upon you—something that you didn’t want or expect to deal with. It’s natural to react negatively—at first. The trick to being a Change Artist is to train yourself to recover as quickly as possible. Professional athletes must do this all the time. If they let a setback, such as the other team scoring a goal, undermine their confidence then it affects their performance. Top salespeople train themselves to stay enthusiastic despite on-going rejection. Great leaders who face a downturn in the economy find a way to rise to the occasion to continue to serve their employees, clients and stakeholders.

Benefits to being a Change Artist

By applying simple habits to your everyday life – you may notice benefits such as:
• more peace of mind
• better health and quicker recovery time
• enhanced creativity and vitality
• an overall feeling of well-being and contentment with life
• more resourceful ideas for overcoming obstacles
• better relationships with clients, co-workers and significant others
• more contentment and happiness towards yourself and life in general

My last unwanted change I had to deal with was: __________________________________________________________ (e.g. got laid off, lost an investment, had an injury, etc.)

Now rate yourself on how you responded after the initial shock had warn off. Choose which letter (A, B, C, D or E) comes closest to your response. Be as honest with yourself as possible. You can’t get to where you want to go unless you know where you are now.
1. Accepting paradox versus totalitarian thinking:
A. You could only see the change as negative.
B. You could only see the change as positive.
C. You could view the situation from both a negative and positive point of view.
D. You could view the situation neutrally without interpretation what it all meant.
E. In hopes of avoiding dealing with the change, you pretended you were someone else.
2. Paying close attention versus being distracted:
A. You were panicked and distracted; your mind continued to spin in all directions imagining one negative fantasy after another.
B. You were scattered for quite a while going back and forth about what the change meant, mostly your thoughts were negative.
C. You were able to calm your mind for short periods of time; enough to let the interpretations be replaced with a few new insights.
D. You put your full attention on the situation, staying open-minded which allowed a new way of being to appear that would help you navigate the change more successfully.
E. You watched Frasier reruns in hopes of getting a psychological insight into your situation.

3. Embracing chaos versus avoiding chaos:
A. The breakdown of the old completely disoriented you and you couldn’t think at all.
B. The chaos was alarming but you found a way to pick you way through the mess.
C. You understood that chaos is part of the breakdown process of the old and you mustered the part of you that can thrive well in chaotic situations.
D. You were just as calm and centered in the chaos as you were before the change hit.
E. You meticulously re-organized your office staples drawer in hopes of calming yourself down.

4. Whole brain processing versus one-sided processing:
A. You used only one style of thinking, for example you became overly logical at the expense of anything else.
B. You used a few closely related thinking styles such as logic, analysis, verbal reasoning, and linear processing.
C. You used partial aspects of both your left and right brain such as logic and intuition or verbal and non-verbal processing.
D. You used as much of your brain as possible simultaneously including linear and holistic processing, logical and intuitive processing, sequential and random processing, verbal and nonverbal processing, symbolic and concrete reasoning and reality-based and fantasy-based processing. For more details of the different types of brain processing go to: http://web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm
E. You went