Without question, the most important understanding about ‘change’ is that it is a process. It is rarely, if ever, instantaneous. And yes, catastrophic events do occur causing change to be immediate, but most of the changes we experience come in the form of a process – which is on the continuum of slow to fast. You also have to realize that it is a ‘going from’ to a ‘going to’ so you have to have a clear understanding of what your ‘from’ is as well as what your ‘to’ is. Lastly, change is rarely completed since we humans do tend to hold on to an ‘anchor’ of known. Once we let go of our known then the new becomes a new anchor… till a change occurs again.
Change can be personal and traumatic, like the loss of a loved one or a job that you enjoyed. Change can also be a ‘moving on’, a next step, thus less jarring. But the issue of change is a given and it really is quite silly to fight it. It is far more satisfying when you can mold it more to your liking. An important question is can you see change coming? When it arrives is it something you’ve had time to prepare for… and did you? Denying and ignoring will never stem change from coming.
Let me illustrate my point with an example from nature. Outside my living and bedroom windows are trees that are very close to the building. As a result I can follow their progress from the spring first buds, to the bright green leaves that grow and then begin to darken as the summer progresses. Soon these leaves take on new colors of reds and oranges and dark browns as fall approaches and then they begin to drop and leave the limbs bare when the snow comes. Each of these changes can be observed or they can be only unthinkingly noticed. It depends on the person – how and what they see.
Change can also be age defined as in: the older we get the less open and accommodating we are to change while the younger the age the more we delight in change. I suspect that is only partially true. I think of change more as a mindset when it comes to embracing and/or adjusting to it. Since change is inevitable and since it is a process, we need to be proactive regarding changes in our lives in those areas in which we have some influence. This is not a manipulative basis to proactive as much as it is an adjustment basis. How we respond, what we do, how we go about doing what we do – all attitude issues which, by definition, speaks to our character.
… how do you relate to change?
