PIVOTING
You are driving down the road and the road turns just ahead of you. What will you do?
Either pivot or be pivoted.
What do I mean by this statement?
When those inevitable changes confront you in life, you have a choice. Turn the wheel or run off the road. It may seem like you don’t have much of a choice, but think again.
Let the bend in the road control you or take control of the change yourself. Be acted on or take action.
To be pivoted means the change takes charge. The change dictates the direction of your life.
To pivot means you take charge of altering the direction of your life. It may not be your first choice, this transition in which you find yourself, but you respond to it with intentional action rather than just let it knock you around.
Either way, things will change. It is a part of life.
When we pivot, we maintain some control. When we are pivoted, we let the change take control of the new direction our life takes. By pivoting, we choose the direction ourselves.
One of the most effective ways of addressing the transitions is to pivot.
EXAMPLES OF PIVOTS
Watch a running back take the football from the quarterback. He starts running in one direction. Then, out of the corner of his eye he sees someone on the defensive team about to take him down. So, he plants his leading foot, pivots, avoids a tackle and takes off in a different direction, advancing the ball.
He pivoted. He took charge. He still had to change direction, but he chose. He stayed in control.
A “pivot” is a point where energy shifts from one direction to another.
In this Covid-19 impacted world, we notice how schools pivoted from in-person learning to on-line learning. The virus created a huge transition in education in this country. Schools are wrestling back the initiative with their pivot.
Often, in sports and education and business and life, more than one pivot might be required. Pivot and get ready to pivot again. The school system here in our community is in its third pivot since Covid-19, getting better with each one.
The hinge on a door is another example of a pivot. Pull on the door handle and the door swings across an arch. The hinge allows the energy to make an opening through which you can pass.
PIVOTS IN OUR LIVES
We can employ a pivot in our lives and then walk through the opening our pivot creates.
Last spring, when Covid-19 hit, Suzanne’s dress shops were forced to close. Too few people were willing to come to them in person. The whole business could have burned through its reserves because of the closures, be forced to lay off employees, sit on unsold inventory, head toward bankruptcy.
If Suzanne had allowed herself to be pivoted, this is exactly what would have happened. Her business and her dreams would have failed.
But Suzanne chose to pivot instead. She pulled her team together. They came up with a way to serve her customers online. They took pictures of their dresses, wrote vivid descriptions of them, beefed up their online presence and back office systems, reached out to customers and little by little created momentum again.
Within a month they had increased their sales and even had to hire new associates to handle the added business.
Pivot or be pivoted. Suzanne chose to pivot.
STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL PIVOT
- DECIDE TO PIVOT
When Barbara’s mom could no longer remain in her home alone in Florida, she decided to pivot and we decided to pivot with her. We offered for her to come live with us in Texas. She said, “Yes”.
The first step to a successful pivot is this decision to pivot. Pivot or be pivoted. Barbara’s mom wanted to stay in control of her life. She had several alternatives – remain in her home, go to a nursing home, come live with us. She made her choice and we backed her up.
The power of pivoting is maintain some level of control, rather than giving in to external forces.
In our personal and professional lives, we can decide to
2. PLANT A FOOT.
Like the point guard on the Women’s Basketball Team at Stetson, dribbling down the court and wanting to change direction to get past a defensive player, Barbara’s mom planted a foot and changed directions in her life.
We prepared a room for her, took a few days off from work and helped her move her furniture from Florida to Texas. We had decided to pivot with our lives, accept the change that had come for Barbara’s mom and for us, and look for the good in it.
Pivoting is more than just a decision, a desire, a wanting to do something. Pivoting requires action, planning that foot, changing direction.
We adjusted our schedules to welcome her into our home. Her life changed and so did ours. Both of us pivoted, didn’t let the change take us down, made the most of it.
Every change life throws at us provides an opportunity for us to decide to pivot, plant that foot, take charge of the change.
Barbara and I and her mother enjoyed a very special final year of her life, all of us together, in our home.
The second step in pivoting is planting a foot.
In reality, it may require several such foot plantings. The first one may not work, nor the second. Pivoting often means a series of direction changes as you weave through the change in your life.
3. BUILD MOMENTUM
Many of the big, traumatic changes in our lives knock us back on our heels, even take us down for a while. If they do, we can decide to get up, get back in the game, and run another play.
A pivot gets us going again, usually in a different direction, but going again and as we keep going we build momentum in this new direction.
Suzanne made a strategic decision with her dress business. Either go under or push on through. She and her staff put their heads together, shared ideas, considered each one, allowed the best ideas to come up to the surface, made a decision and started creating the new direction for their company.
Don did the same when his wife packed up her things and left him after 15 years of marriage. He was caught off guard, devastated emotionally. With the help of a close friend who was a good listener and encourager, Don was able to talk through what he was feeling and thinking.
Within a week he had found a pastor to meet with for several weeks. This helped him sort through his life and his choices going forward. Supportive friends at work and church helped him regain his equilibrium, make some important decisions, and chart a course forward.
The third step in pivoting is build momentum in the new direction you have chosen for your life.
When I graduated from Princeton Seminary and moved to Martinsville, Virginia for my first job as an Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, my life pivoted. From student to pastor. From a rhythm of going to class, reading, and studying to a totally different routine, and quickly.
I planted a foot, took off in this new direction, slowly at first, but soon built momentum, kept learning. That momentum has drawn me along on a wonderful 45-year journey serving as a Pastor and as an Army Chaplain.
Changes can either stop you in your tracks or lead you to move in a different direction. You can choose. You can choose to pivot — decide to make the change, plant a foot and make that change, then build momentum into the rest of your life.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
- Where in your own life have you pivoted – made a decision, planted a foot, and built momentum in a new direction?
- What are some of the forces that sometimes lead us to be pivoted instead of pivoting?
- What resources (memories, experiences, examples, values, beliefs, people, …) will you be able to draw on the next time a major change comes in your life, so you can pivot instead of be pivoted?