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Embracing Change Will Bring Success
- By Mark Walters
- Published 01/29/2010
- Personal Development
- Unrated
In some ways, change is exciting. We all want our lives to improve, and there is no progress without change. However, the word also holds some very negative connotations.
Synonyms for the word 'changeable' include: 'uncertain', 'volatile', 'unstable, 'unsettled'. These words throw up emotions for us that make us feel 'insecure', 'vulnerable' and 'unsure'.
There is a small corner in all of us which likes to feel secure and safe and change clearly goes against that. However, once change has occurred, we very often call it 'progress', 'evolution', 'expansion', 'growth' or 'advancement', and this throws up a far more positive set of emotions.
Therefore, it seems that it is not change itself which makes us anxious so much as the transition process that it entails - that step into the unknown. We like the stability of things as they presently are. Now is somehow comforting because we know what to expect.
Maybe it is not change that we fear, rather it is the loss of control that we associate with change. Change inherently carries with it an element of risk. Sometimes that perceived risk is so daunting that it keeps us where we are now despite the current discomforts.
Then, there are times when we have all been guilty of change for change's sake. We change the color of our hair, we change the layout of our bedroom, we may even change where we work.
I used to change jobs every 4 months, as no job I ever found was the 'right job'. I believed that when I found the 'right job' all of my unhappiness would go away. However, it was then pointed out to me that you could move to a different planet and everything that really matters would still be the same, because you are still taking 'you' with you.
Why do we do that? We do it to distract ourselves from making the changes that really matter in our lives. In reality, it might be our choice of career that is making us unhappy, but we will change our hair color 'just to cheer ourselves up', because that is an 'easy change'.
Seeing as change cannot be avoided, only delayed, why not embrace it? Use change as an opportunity to evaluate what your life, and course correct. Seize change as your master key to success. How else are we going to grow?
As a final point, I will give you a quote by Charles Darwin: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
Synonyms for the word 'changeable' include: 'uncertain', 'volatile', 'unstable, 'unsettled'. These words throw up emotions for us that make us feel 'insecure', 'vulnerable' and 'unsure'.
There is a small corner in all of us which likes to feel secure and safe and change clearly goes against that. However, once change has occurred, we very often call it 'progress', 'evolution', 'expansion', 'growth' or 'advancement', and this throws up a far more positive set of emotions.
Therefore, it seems that it is not change itself which makes us anxious so much as the transition process that it entails - that step into the unknown. We like the stability of things as they presently are. Now is somehow comforting because we know what to expect.
Maybe it is not change that we fear, rather it is the loss of control that we associate with change. Change inherently carries with it an element of risk. Sometimes that perceived risk is so daunting that it keeps us where we are now despite the current discomforts.
Then, there are times when we have all been guilty of change for change's sake. We change the color of our hair, we change the layout of our bedroom, we may even change where we work.
I used to change jobs every 4 months, as no job I ever found was the 'right job'. I believed that when I found the 'right job' all of my unhappiness would go away. However, it was then pointed out to me that you could move to a different planet and everything that really matters would still be the same, because you are still taking 'you' with you.
Why do we do that? We do it to distract ourselves from making the changes that really matter in our lives. In reality, it might be our choice of career that is making us unhappy, but we will change our hair color 'just to cheer ourselves up', because that is an 'easy change'.
Seeing as change cannot be avoided, only delayed, why not embrace it? Use change as an opportunity to evaluate what your life, and course correct. Seize change as your master key to success. How else are we going to grow?
As a final point, I will give you a quote by Charles Darwin: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
