Dabbl

              We humans can be so scared of change at times. I know I can be. The unknown can be nerve-wrecking at times especially if it’s a big change like moving or making a decision about work or deciding to have a baby with your spouse. Why aren’t we more welcoming to change? Why don’t we take on change with a more optimistic approach?

              Change can be good or it can be bad. And a lot of times we get comfortable with the way things are and would rather not let that go. Comfort can be destructive at times. Too much and we get lazy and unmotivated. However, not enough and we can become stressed and irrational. The balance of comfort is forever crucial to the state of our happiness. Change on the other hand is a good thing. Well, most of the time that is. I’m not talking about large changes like deciding to start a family. I’m talking about small changes like a change in your routine. Or a change in your diet. Or a change in your work schedule. These changes are very healthy and should be welcomed. These small changes give us a chance to see what else works for us. If the new changes don’t work, then we will naturally gravitate back towards the old ways. Doing this, we lose nothing. In fact, we actually gain knowledge. We learn what doesn’t work for us and that is just as important to know as what does work for us.

              How do we encourage small changes in our life? For starters, it’s important to try new things. Trying new interests or hobbies or projects are the best way to welcome change. The reason this is so good for us is because we learn the most and grow the most through changes. Adapting to change is what makes us humans. Some would even argue that’s why we are here today and at the top of the food chain. Our ability to change is what has separated us from every other species on Earth. So change is in our nature.

              Small changes show us different sides of ourselves. Even if the experience is bad, it’s a good experience. Allow me to explain. There are no bad experiences. Since even from bad experiences, we gain knowledge of what to stay away from. Trying new things by adding small changes to your everyday life is the best way to grow as a person. We might not always agree with the change or like the change but it’s important that we go through it. Most of the time it’s not the actual change we are scared of. Instead we are scared to lose the comfort that we have. Because once we adapt to the new state, we don’t fear that change anymore because it’s no longer a change. The state change is the difficult part of change, but once we get through that we come out the other side a more knowledgeable person. We are better off going through the change than not.

              Big changes like life decisions are another beast. With small changes, you can take much more risks because the downside is next to nothing. On the other hand with large changes, this can be trickier especially if the change is out of your hands. But often times, when we think something is a big change in the moment, it ends up being minimal looking back on it a couple years later. And there are plenty of times where we think something is very bad in the moment, then become thankful that it happened. These are the moments I love. The silver linings.

              The next time your boss asks you to take on a small task or your gym changes their hours or whatever the small change is, don’t look at it as a massive inconvenience. Look at it as an opportunity to grow without any real downsides. What’s the downside of a new project at work? More experience? Nope. Because that’s a good thing. Every small change has something to benefit from. We just have to be patient and search for what that is. But I assure you, it’s there.

              How do you deal with changes? Big or small?