Endings: The Necessary Change Agent

One of the necessary and ever-present realities in life is that of endings. Endings come in many forms, and how we choose to process, integrate, and learn from life’s endings, says much about who we are as people and as leaders.

Over the last week I have experienced endings on a multitude of levels, all of which involved a relationship of one kind or another. I tend to meet endings with resistance. I want to think about what could have been done differently, what may have transpired had the ending not occurred, and how did I contribute to this ending?

Embracing Endings

Endings are difficult because they force change, often in times when change is perceived as a threat, thereby inducing fear and doubt. Endings are a reminder of our lack of control over our situations. But endings are also a necessary component to growth and when seen as a friend or mentor, allow us to see a path that was once dark but is now illuminated with choice.

Embracing endings promotes:

• Acceptance
• Growth
• Creativity
• Reflection

Embracing endings allows:

• Opportunity
• Redirection
• Newness
• Forward momentum

Ignoring endings:

• Traps you in victim mentality
• Heightens anxiety and fear
• Keeps you stuck in the past

Endings also benefit business:

• By providing accelerated growth when alleviating systems, customers, or employees that no longer align with you and your vision.
• By fostering an adaptability mindset to keep up with the ever-changing face of business.
• Endings allow you to create room for imagination and expansion of your brand, image, mission, and impact, to stay relevant and competitive.

Endings as a Cycle

If you think of endings as a cycle that is in constant motion, you can see how endings are always showing up in your life and business. I listened to a podcast last year that referred to this cycle as occurring in Three phases: creation, maintenance and destruction.

To create something new you must first destroy what is to bring to light what will be. Once the newness has been created you maintain it until its efficacy runs out, then you destroy what once worked to create again, and thus the process continues.

Why Endings Matter

Why does this matter to you? Because you’re a person who values your position in life and how you lead your business(s) and home. Because you are brave enough to begin again. And because you’re bold enough to initiate endings, even in the toughest of circumstances, knowing the ending is the necessary change agent for you.

Take some time this week to consider the cycle of endings and ask yourself if there is something that should end and what good can come of that ending.

Getting to the next level always requires ending something, leaving it behind, and moving on. Growth itself demands that we move on. Without the ability to end things, people stay stuck, never becoming who they are meant to be, never accomplishing all that their talents and abilities should afford them.

- Dr. Henry Cloud - Necessary Endings