Learning To Embrace Change

How do you react (emotionally and physically) to change in your life?

What happens when things don’t go as planned…when someone ends a relationship without you expecting or when something unexpected happens in your career or job?

How about everyday things that change like the weather (a sudden storm or rain when it was supposed to be sunny), a sudden meeting or appointment that is added or abruptly removed?

Do you get anxious?

Do you get flustered?

Does it make you angry or sad?

Really think about how you react to these situations…when I ask people, most of us THINK we react to change well, but when we really think or monitor our behavior we see that reality is quite different.

In fact, if you had to put your finger one of the major causes of stress, frustration, anxiety and negative thoughts it would be how we adapt (or do not adapt more aptly) to change – both daily and major life changes.

Yet we can’t deny that change is all around us, that we can’t ignore change and that doing so would not be in our best interest in any case.

Through change comes growth.

No change, no growth or progress.

So it stands to reason, if we can better at rolling with the punches, at embracing and working through change rather than be threatened by it…the more growth and happiness we can experience.

3 Ways To Embrace Change In Your Life

1. Expect Good Things

Most people have beliefs in their mind right now around the impact of change on our lives.  The challenge is that for most, those beliefs are designed around one or two negative situations in our lives versus the thousands of times change has led to positive outcomes.  We have to flip that switch and begin to fill our minds with experiences, visualizations, stories and thoughts of the GOOD that has come out of change in our lives.   For example, you finished school, that next step was a BIG change in your life and look what happened…you ended up with a new life that in many ways has improved.  Look back and find those positive situations where you came out on top after a major life change.  Reflect on this daily for several weeks until you have trained your mind to expect good things rather than expecting bad things to come from change

2. Change Builds Confidence

So much of what we do in life is dependent on our level of self-confidence.  Our ability to embrace opportunities versus shrink and hide is based on self-confidence.  How we project and gain influence and respect from others is based on our self-confidence.  Our own emotional state is highly dependent on how we feel about ourselves.  One of the big realizations for those who do embrace change is the following:

Standing Still, Avoiding Change Destroys Self-Confidence While The Survival Through Change (No Matter The Outcome) Builds Our Self-Confidence 

3. Change Is The ONLY Path To Achieving Our Goals

There is no great progress without tremendous change.  To get from where you are today to where you want to be will be largely accomplished through accelerating change.  You cannot avoid it.  If you focus ONLY on the fear and risk associated with change, then that change can seem monumental and insurmountable.  Yet, if you continue to focus on the ultimate desired outcome (your goal, desired state, or result), then experiencing change along the path is not so daunting.   Assume your goal is to climb a challenging hill.  In case 1 you focus on the challenges along the way – the heat, the fact you are not feeling 100%, the rocks along the way, etc… Each obstacle seems insurmountable.  In case 2, you continue to stay focused on the ultimate outcome – reaching the summit – suddenly each obstacle or change you have to make is much smaller given the perspective of reaching your final objective.

Put simply, those who learn to embrace change reach much higher levels of achievement, happiness and success in their lives versus those that continue to fear or become anxious about change.  The choice for many of us is simple, would we rather continue to be trapped inside our own minds full of anxiety, fear and low self-confidence or would it be better to train ourselves to embrace change, rid ourselves of fear and anxiety and grow our self-confidence so we can really LIVE life to its fullest?