{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"SEPTEMBER 1: TRANSFORMATION DAY A New Season, a New Zone\u2014and Perhaps a New You","description":"September 1 has a new designation. At least it does if Stan Hustad has anything to say about it. The longtime broadcaster, teacher, business performance coach\u2014and increasingly self-described \u201cTransformation Man\u201d\u2014has decided that September 1 should become Transformation Day. Call it T-Day. Not an official government holiday. No banks will close. The mail will probably still arrive. And nobody is required to buy a greeting card. But perhaps it is a day worth taking seriously. In this special edition of What It Takes Radio and The Transformation Zone, Stan makes the case that September 1 is an unusually appropriate moment to stop, look at our lives, and ask a deceptively difficult question: What needs to be transformed? WHY SEPTEMBER 1? There is something naturally transitional about the beginning of September. Summer vacations are ending. Schools are reopening. Businesses begin moving toward the final stretch of the year. Labor Day reminds us about work and those who do it. Autumn approaches. For many people, September feels almost like a second New Year. Stan believes we should use it that way. Instead of simply returning to \u201cnormal,\u201d perhaps September should invite us to consider whether normal is actually where we want to go. Maybe we should not merely resume our lives. Maybe we should transform them. That is the idea behind Transformation Day. September 1 becomes a marker\u2014a chance to declare that the coming season will not simply be more of the same. DIFFERENT NOT JUST IN DEGREE, BUT IN KIND One of the most memorable ideas in the program comes from an observation made years ago by a Jesuit scholar Stan knew. Speaking about the small percentage of people who seem to discover the deeper principles of successful living, the scholar observed that such people eventually become: \u201cNot different by degree, but different in kind.\u201d That is a powerful description of transformation. Transformation is not simply doing five percent more. It isn't buying another planner, downloading another app, attending another seminar or making another list of resolutions destined to disappear beneath the paperwork by October. Real transformation changes something fundamental. It changes how we see, how we think, how we work, how we serve, how we relate to other people\u2014and ultimately, perhaps, who we are becoming. Improvement asks, \u201cHow can I do this a little better?\u201d Transformation dares to ask, \u201cWhat could this become?\u201d And perhaps the even more uncomfortable question: \u201cWho could I become?\u201d WELCOME TO THE TRANSFORMATION ZONE Transformation Day also marks the beginning of another experiment: The Transformation Zone Collective. Stan describes the Transformation Zone as a gathering place for people who want to learn together, challenge one another, share what works, and help create meaningful transformation in life, work, business, service and relationships. The idea has also been influenced by Stan's continuing conversations and work surrounding Joe Pine and the emerging Transformation Economy. The Experience Economy helped businesses understand that customers increasingly wanted memorable experiences rather than simply goods and services. The next question is bigger: What if people increasingly want experiences that actually change them? That possibility extends far beyond business. People want transformed careers, transformed organizations, transformed relationships, transformed communities, transformed ways of working\u2014and, increasingly, transformed lives. Stan's interest in that subject did not begin with a business book. It has run through much of his life\u2014as a teacher, missionary broadcaster, communicator and business performance coach. Behind those different occupations has been one continuing ambition: Help people become different because the encounter happened. Not manipulated. Not merely motivated. Transformed. TRANSFORMATION MAY BEGIN WITH FORGIVENESS The program then takes an important turn. Transformation isn't always about adding something new. Sometimes transformation begins by finally putting something old down. Stan points toward the Jewish High Holy Day tradition surrounding Rosh Hashanah, the Days of Awe and Yom Kippur as reminders of reflection, repentance, forgiveness and renewal. That suggests another possibility for Transformation Day. Perhaps September 1 could also become a personal Forgiveness Day. Forgive someone. Ask someone to forgive you. Stop rehearsing an old injury. Admit an old mistake. Accept forgiveness when it has been offered. And perhaps do one of the hardest things of all: stop allowing yesterday's failure to dictate tomorrow's identity. Transformation sometimes begins not with acquiring something, but with releasing something. THE WORLD IS TRANSFORMING WHETHER WE ARE READY OR NOT There is also urgency behind this conversation. Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming work, communication, media, education and business. Careers are changing. The media environment has already changed dramatically. Entire professions may be reshaped. The question is therefore not whether transformation is coming. It already is. The better question is whether we will simply have transformation happen to us, or whether we will learn how to participate intelligently and intentionally in it. Stan argues that this requires more than technology. It requires wisdom, knowledge, discernment, courage, compassion, and people willing to help one another navigate unfamiliar territory. That is part of the purpose of The Transformation Zone. LIVING A TRANSFORMED LIFE There is a danger in talking about transformation until it becomes another attractive business word. Stan's challenge is much more personal. A transformed life should eventually become visible. Someone should be served differently because of it. A relationship should improve. A habit should change. A decision should be made. Something should be forgiven. Something worthwhile should begin. Something destructive may need to end. And somebody besides ourselves should eventually benefit. Because perhaps one of the finest reasons to live a transformed life is this: Transformed people can become transforming people. They bring courage into discouraged rooms. They bring possibility into stuck organizations. They ask better questions. They help others see alternatives. They become examples rather than merely instructors. And sometimes they simply become the person who says to someone else: \u201cYou don't have to stay where you are.\u201d That may be one of the most important messages of Transformation Day. THINGS TO REMEMBER \u2022 Transformation is more than improvement. Getting better is worthwhile. Becoming different in kind is something deeper. \u2022 September can become a second New Year. Don't simply return from summer. Decide what the next season of your life is going to mean. \u2022 Transformation begins with awareness. You cannot intentionally transform something you refuse to examine. \u2022 Forgiveness can be transformational. Some of the baggage we carry into tomorrow belongs in yesterday. \u2022 The world is changing whether we participate or not. AI, media, careers and business are already being transformed. Wisdom means learning how to respond rather than merely react. \u2022 A transformed life should eventually transform something beyond itself. The ultimate test may be whether somebody else is better because of what is happening in you. THINGS TO SHARE Ask someone you care about: \u201cIf September 1 were Transformation Day for you, what would you want to transform?\u201d Share the idea with a colleague, friend, family member or team. Instead of asking only, \u201cWhat are we going to accomplish before the end of the year?\u201d try asking: \u201cWhat could become fundamentally different before the end of the year?\u201d And perhaps share this idea: Don't merely survive change. Learn to become someone capable of creating worthwhile change. THINGS TO TAKE ACTION ON Choose one area of your life that deserves transformation. Name it. Write it down. Then ask three questions: \u2022 What needs to stop? \u2022 What needs to start? \u2022 Who can help me make it happen? Next, identify one person you might help. Transformation becomes far more powerful when it moves from me to we. And finally, consider the forgiveness question: Is there something\u2014or someone\u2014you need to release before you can move forward? Do something about it. Not someday. Transformation Day seems like a pretty good day to begin. AND IF YOU NEED A GUIDE INTO THE ZONE\u2026 Transformation is personal, but it doesn't have to be solitary. For decades, Stan Hustad has worked as a teacher, broadcaster, business performance coach and guide to people seeking meaningful change in their work and lives. His invitation is simple: Contact Stan. Start a conversation. Bring the problem. Bring the possibility. Bring the dream that has been sitting on the shelf. Bring the business challenge, career question or nagging feeling that something in life needs to become different. Then explore together what a genuinely transformed life, business or way of working might look like\u2014and what it will take to begin making it real. Because September 1 does not need congressional approval to become Transformation Day. It only needs a decision. September 1 is T-Day. Transformation Day. And perhaps the most important question is not whether the world will recognize it. The question is: Will you? WELCOME TO THE ZONE. The Transformation Zone \u2022 What It Takes Radio \u2022 Stan Hustad ","author_name":"Inconvenient Ideas with Stan Hustad...the Radio Man","author_url":"https:\/\/witradio.net\/","html":"