Change
During the course of your career, you will come to find that the nature of your work changes over time. This may occur gradually, as new tasks and responsibilities are provided to you. Or this may occur rapidly in the case when you switch roles, gain a promotion, or take on a new job. The gradual changes are often easily enough taken on, as small changes are are often easier to assimilate into our everyday life. However, these more sudden or larger changes can be a bit disruptive to your life and work. Such disruption can leave us feeling a little fearful, maybe have some anxiety. The imposter syndrome, that I'm sure we've all encountered at some point, may feel like it has crept back in and shown its face as we take on these new roles. You might even feel like these changes will make us lose something important.
All of these feelings are important to recognize and give acknowledgement to. But these are all associated with one thing and that is the fear of change. The fear of change is something that can happen in any area of life, though we spend so much time in our day jobs it often manifests there most often. In reality the fear and the change are actually two different things. The change is that new job, the new role, or the new responsibilities. The fear is simply our reaction to uncertainty. If we take these things apart we can see that change is not really the issue here. The real issue is "the fear", or more specifically the "the fear of uncertainty" or "of the unknown".
By looking at the change and our reaction in this way, we can see that we have a choice. When we have a choice we can empower ourselves to choose the way we respond to change. In this way, we can add a positive response to the change. We can see this as an opportunity for growth, an opportunity to learn new skills or find new capabilities in ourselves. And if we embrace the change fully, we can actually drive within ourselves excitement for the opportunity. Further more, opportunities like this can change our situation, giving us the ability to turn around a "dead end" or "stuck" feeling in our current roles. It can also be an opportunity to recapture or rekindle old skills or interests that we may have left in the past because they didn't serve the situation at the time. Now, we take those interests and skills and take the time to give them proper attention and allow them to grow.
When we embrace this new chapter of our lives we are embracing an unknown future. And its in the unknown that we often find anxieties can begin. But we can also find other positive responses there too. Wonder, excitement, adventure. When we take the unknown and reframe what it means to us, we can become excited and empowered by it. And if we reframe that unknown future into opportunity we can take our excitement for it and mold that future how we want to see it evolve. We can then direct our growth with all the combined experience that we've carried with us so far and chart a new path that is bright and rejuvenating. Let go of the past, let go of old habits, let go of fears that may have held you back. And embrace the new.
Sometimes fear seems like an impassible obstacle. But we must move past fear, go through it, and beyond it. And if we do this and look back we will realize that there wasn't really anything at all holding us back. If anything held us back it was only ourselves, our resistance, our reactions.
So the next time life brings change to you and you are about to react or respond. Take a moment. Breath and observe yourself and your feelings. If there is fear there, understand why it is there and then attempt to reframe that fear into a positive response. Reframing the situation into a positive response puts ourselves in the driver's seat. We become empowered to direct the change how we want it to go. With time and practice, we can take all of life's challenges on this way, empowering and vitalizing ourself and living towards our true nature.
