I see myself as a bit of a juggernaut. I take off at 100 miles an hour in one direction and often don’t stop to check it is the right direction. Eventually I stop if I realise it is not right or perhaps someone points it out to me. At which point I take off in the new direction flat out.

As a result of understanding this about me, I now try and book in reviews at work more regularly than 12 months. I find senior managers are not great at pointing out when things are a little awry until it gets to a point where things are going really badly. By flagging issues early on, they can be fixed and avoid becoming big issues.

Away from work, this full steam ahead attitude also occurs. But the realisation I am off track comes about as a result of an event or a change in my attitudes. And this triggers a revolution. A desire for me to reset my life and to take it back to the way things used to be.

As a result of this, I have learnt something. It is quite interesting:

A revolution never quite ends up exactly where it started. 

You may come a full circle, but you have moved on some. As life goes on you learn new things and this allows you to make improvements. So when the revolution occurs, you re-adopt some of the great things you had, but you cast aside some of the bad parts, and replace them with the improvements you have made. Hence the circle never actually closes.

I think a lot of this happens as part of growing up also. You learn to do away with the bad and replace it with the good. You learn to become a better person and to improve yourself. And it is all these learnings that make it interesting. When you stop learning you become bored and distracted.

So, when it comes time to make big changes, be sure to take into consideration the things you used to do well, and the things you do well now. Make yourself into a big montage of all things good and come out the other side moved on a bit from where you started.