Nothing but Change

The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius*

It’s been said before that the only constant in life is change. Yet, there are so many people who fear change. And many who are violently opposed to it (sometimes, quite literally). What is it about change that terrifies so many?

For some, it’s the loss of control. This may surprise you, but there are a lot of control freaks in the world. People who feel like they have to have their hands in everything, and if they don’t, they feel like their world is falling apart.

For others, it’s moving away from the familiar. We get in our comfort zones. We like the things we like, and we aren’t too sure about anything else. I feel like my kids are like this when it comes to food. It’s a constant struggle to get them to try something new. “I’m not telling you to like it; I’m tell you to take a bite” is a common sentence in our house. I would venture to say that it gets repeated somewhere between 5 and 49,287 times every week.

In change management, one of the things you have to be able to do is acknowledge the loss that takes place in the change. Whether or not we think that loss is important is irrelevant. Perception is reality for most people.

It’s not that people don’t like change. It’s that they only like certain types of change. They prefer the change that is good to change that is perceived as negative (or even neutral – nobody wants to change for the sake of changing). The catch is, they need to be convinced that it is a good change in order to be on board with it. If you don’t convince them of the need for the change, it doesn’t matter how well you transition everything else. They won’t like it.

For example, people who say they don’t like change will still change a dirty diaper. It stinks. It’s full of… well, you know… and it’s not going to get any better by just ignoring it. Change is necessary. Change is constant.

So, what in your life needs to change? What is it that you are holding onto due to a sense of comfort or a desire to control certain elements of your life? How can you embrace that change and allow your perception of life to transition with it?

*Amazon affiliate link. This is the version I have on my Kindle right now. I like this particular translation. You may as well.