Getting Comfortable With Inevitable Change
“People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.”
As Heraclitus noted, “nothing endures but change”. As I have mentioned in my post Agility: How to Thrive in Ambiguity, the pace of change in the world we live in is quite unprecedented and we are under constant disruption. Begin agile, or being flexible and adaptable to change, is indeed an essential skill to help us thrive. But we also need to open our minds to change and proactively and deliberately seek change and reinvention!
Why would you do that? Have you ever found yourself in a position where change was inevitable and felt annoyed, frustrated, or even scared because of the change? Maybe you felt trapped—the change was going to happen whether you liked it or not. You know how alarming these types of situations can be.
You might have felt out of sorts or stressed out for days, weeks, or even months. But what if you were to undergo a paradigm shift and begin to view change as opportunity? What if you could reach out and embrace change with open arms?
Read on for some mind-expanding, eye-opening ways to regard change as opportunity in your life:
Accept the idea of change. When you get comfortable with the idea that change is going to happen, it will help you go into a change with less stress. John F. Kennedy once said, “The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.” Change will, in essence, always be occurring. Recognizing this fact will make life easier for you.
See that change implies progress. Whether you’re ready to admit it or not, when something changes, it’s progressing toward something. As you probably realize, living life on a day-to-day basis often involves making progress on some level.
Recognize that change introduces unknowns into your life. The aspect of change that probably shakes you up the most is that it introduces unknown factors. It can be a bit discombobulating to not know what could be coming your way. Still, the unknown aspect of change must be acknowledged.
Be ready to experience the “newness” that change brings. If you can shift your thinking from a focus on the unknown to recognize that change involves “newness”—new things, people, places, and ideas—with at least some of it bringing excitement and interest, you’ll feel a whole lot better about it.
Believe that change can be transformative. You could be exposed to better products, knowledge, and skills as results of change. Many changes also have great aspects that open up your life in ways you hadn’t imagined before. Your experience at work or home—wherever the change occurs—can transform your life for the better.
Notice that a wider array of choices often accompanies change. Along with change often come more options. A whole new world opens up, in a sense. You’re in a position to take advantage of new choices.
View change as “the spice of life.” There’s an old saying based on something the poet, William Cowper, wrote that states, “Variety is the spice of life.” If you can apply that attitude to how you see change, your whole approach to it will be different.
Tell yourself that you can adjust to change. The fact is that you’ve probably experienced hundreds of changes so far over your lifetime. And you’ve adjusted to them. You’ve worked things out. You’ll be able to adjust to more changes in the future.
If you shift how you regard changes, you’ll feel more comfortable with them. Accepting change, viewing change as progress, recognizing there will be unknowns, and embracing the newness of change will help you get ready for change.
If you can see change as transformative, notice that it creates more choices for you, view it as “the spice of life,” and remind yourself that you can adjust to anything that happens, you’ll approach change more positively. Now you can go forward into the next change with an open mind! Now you can go forward and reinvent yourself!
“When people want to reinvent themselves or move forward, they need first and foremost to be brave and know that they can do it. If they work hard, network, hustle and continue believing in their vision, it’s absolutely possible to make pivots and bring ideas to life. When people tell me they “don’t know how I do it” (which happens all the time), I tell them that anyone who wants to can do it. Just commit and dive in.”