Whether I’m working with an individual coaching client or an organization, something I see time and time again is the search for an Easy Button.  For those unfamiliar with the term, an Easy Button is a button one pushes that instantly fixes your problems. 

And who wouldn’t want the Easy Button?  It means less work, less energy, and less brain power to deal with the problem when perhaps you’re already feeling exhausted and drained.  Whether the Easy Button you’re looking for is a:

• Quick fix to a long standing challenge in the organization or your family

• Material object or activity to make unwanted feelings disappear

• Easy solution to stop a well established, undesirable behavior / habit

• Pill to make the illness / disease go away

• Switch to go from feeling unconfident to confident

The question is, how often do you or your organization keep trying to find the Easy Button for a challenge?  What if the Easy Button you are seeking is a fairytale (i.e. an instant fix doesn’t actually exist)?

As an example, take the one or more tick infections I’ve been dealing with for the last three months.  I would love to be able to hit the Easy Button and:

1. Take a test and know exactly which tick infections I have

2. Have a doctor tell me with 100% certainty this treatment will resolve the infection(s)

3. Take a pill and within one week the infections are treated and my symptoms gone

The reality of my tick infection(s) is:

1. The current tick infection tests Western Medicine uses are only 50-60% accurate due to:

   • The tests only look for one microbe when there are dozen out there than can cause Lyme Disease

   • Missing bands the CDC pulled out for a Lyme Vaccine that ended up being pulled off the market, and the CDC never put the bands back in the test

   • The tests are very inaccurate the first six weeks from the bite when a person’s body is still developing antibodies to the infection

2. Everyone’s body is different so a treatment that worked for one person may not work for another

3. I’m on Primary Care Physician #2, Infectious Disease Doctor #2, and am adding a Lyme Literate Functional Medicine Doctor because the previous doctors would have misdiagnosed me with Rheumatoid Arthritis had I let them, and were found to have been lacking key knowledge on:

   • Lyme

   • Tick infections

   • The limitations of the current tests

   • Treatment protocols that work

4. I’m on month two of antibiotics, still experiencing intermittent symptoms, and have learned:

   • Many people can be sick for months or even years with a tick infection

   • Antibiotics only sometimes work in fully treating Lyme Disease

And it took the below to uncover the above reality:

• Hours of online research

• Talking to several who have already been through a tick infection and learning from their experience

• Reading “Unlocking Lyme: Myths, Truths, and Practical Solutions for Chronic Lyme Disease” by Dr. William Rawls

• Watching the “Under our Skin” Documentary

All while experiencing:

• Intermittent:

  • Pain in my right shoulder

  • Extreme fatigue

• Having to stay out of the sun, including covering up in the car during the day, because the antibiotic reacts with the UV rays causing a painful burn / rash

• Getting sick on the antibiotic and learning the hard way my body requires it be taken with food

• Adjustments to the foods am eating as taking the antibiotic within two hours of eating dairy, iron rich foods, or vitamins / minerals can render the drug ineffective

Had I spent my time searching for the Easy Button with my tick infection(s), I would have been:

• Resisting and fighting reality

• Spending the precious energy I had seeking tests and treatments that don’t actually exist

• Delaying getting to the doctors and treatment that can resolve the tick infection(s)

Reflecting on the above:

• If you or your organization keep searching for the Easy Button for a particular challenge, how long has the search gone on for?

• What has come from the search?

• If you’ve spent years with an ingrained habit / behavior, or the organization has been experiencing a challenge for some time, what’s the likelihood it will take little work to change and resolve it?

Call to Action

• Want help solving your problem for good and ready to put in the work? Reach out to Rosanne for support in finding and implementing a sustainable solution.

• Using the comments feature, what’s an example where you or your organization kept looking for the Easy Button only to find out one didn’t exist?

• Found this blog useful or know someone this can help? Share it with your network and sign up on the home page to receive the latest blog posts.

About the Author: Rosanne Essiambre helps change agents and departments in one-on-one and group settings to be seen, be heard, and be effective in bringing about change in the organization and/or in their personal lives.  She provides consulting and facilitation to organizations to improve communications and collaboration, smooth out the change / transformation journey, get to the root cause of an issue so it can be solved for good, improve processes, or implement successful lessons learned. And she conducts workshops, trains, and speaks on Energy Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Being a Change Agent and more. If you or your organization could use support with your change effort or some inspiration, contact Rosanne for a complimentary consultation. Rosanne is a Change Agent Coach, Facilitator, Six Sigma Black Belt, Change Management / Continuous Improvement Consultant, Speaker, and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner with more than 20 years experience working on a variety of transformations across a diverse set of industries both domestically and internationally, while continuously improving herself.