Dealing with change

It would be no surprise to anybody that knows me or reads this blog that I love my technology, Kember my stepdaughter is almost the complete opposite. It feels like I’ve spent 10 years trying to encourage her to have the latest mobile, let alone a decent laptop or own a tablet. Every time something new comes out I must confess I want it, so I find it very difficult to understand why she doesn’t.

“What’s wrong with the one I’ve got?”

“Yes, but this one will take better pictures and much faster…” I would always reply with a long list of my reasons why I would want it.

It was the same argument when I had the opportunity to replace the TV, Kember simply didn’t understand the need.

There’s two sides to change. The opportunities, positives and advancements that almost always lead to something better. Then you have when things go wrong and something doesn’t work out the way it was planned.

Just like the glass of water it is either half-full or half empty and people sit on one side or the other. I know, there’s always a third that drinks the water.

It wasn’t until recently when I was reading The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive by Brendon Burchard that I realised how much change plays a part in our lives. Or, more importantly how we deal with it.

Kember had a big change when she was four, her parents split up and she moved to Cornwall and this played a big role in the way she perceived change. She inevitably seen as a bad thing, she liked familiarity which gave her comfort.

I had a similar upbringing with multiple changes and somehow I grew to see change as a new opportunity and make new friends. Don’t get me wrong, some changes are horrible and take a lot of getting used to.

Like everything we have choices, how you embrace change is a choice. We often spend our time wishing for nothing to change, we want the one we love to be there forever and the honeymoon period to at least last over three months.

Years go by and we look back and realise everything changes, from the people and places we hang out to where we work. Even if we keep the same friends, same job and stay in the same town things still change. It is not something that can be fought, prevented or even paused for just a short time.

Dealing with change

Unless you start to see change as new opportunities and a time for growth in a way that you can start dealing with change you will be left wishing for the status quo to continue or even worse the good years to return. We see the past through rose tinted glasses and the future through high hopes and don’t realise it is in the present that things are already changing. Become aware of what is happening now, then you gain the control.

Embrace change, own it, challenge it and damn well get what you want from it. Because I can assure you somebody else is using it to their advantage right now!

Treat change as a game with only one rule ‘change is the only thing guaranteed’.

You are already part of the game, whether you become a spectator or a player is your choice.

On the plus side Kember has never cost me a fortune in technology upgrades.