Recently, change has been coming up as a topic in conversations I’m having with friends and clients. Change is even in the spotlight of my own business. As I’m working on a rebrand, including a new fancy brand name and design, I’ve been experiencing some pretty fearful moments that seem to drown out my feelings of excitement.
Yes, I admit it: I’m scared of embarking on a new journey. Will people like what I have to offer? is my main concern triggering fear and worry.
In most conversations, people express their concern or fear of change. And let’s be frank, whether it’s moving to another city or country, changing to new software or starting a new career. While we do like the promise of change and the possibilities that lie ahead, we fear going through the motion of change. And even more so, we’re terrified when we’re listening to the “oh so dreaded” voices in our head that keep on trying to persuade us that the change we’re going to face will end in disaster and failure.
Focus on the Now
Here’s the thing: most of the times, our fear is not based on reality but on exaggerated future horror scenarios playing on repeat in our head. As soon as we turn our focus back to the present moment, we can embrace the positive power of “now”. Because right now, everything’s looking good. Right now, we know we’ve been working hard on having all our ducks in one row. And we can trust in our ability to have prepared well for the coming changes.
Right now, we can focus our mind on accomplishing today’s task so that we can cross it off from our to-do list tonight.
From my experience, focusing on the now and the action steps you need to take will help you ease some of the fear and anxiety that go along with approaching change.
Change is Good
Once we start going down the road of change, we don’t always know where we end up. Sometimes, the outcome is 10 times better than anticipated. Sometimes, we reach our goals, and we realize we wanted to go somewhere else entirely so we adjust and change again for a more fulfilled journey. And other times, we might think we’ve not reached our goals. But that’s okay, too, because we can be proud that we went on that journey, experienced change and learned from it. And we will do it differently next time.
In other words: Once you realize, there’s no failure at the end of change – what are you so afraid of? You know, change is good. It will make you grow as a person.
Give Yourself Permission
Blogger and changemaker Chris Guillebeau, who is not a stranger to experiencing change, gave a TEDx Talk at CMU on the subject of fear. In his talk, Chris believes that “a lot of us live our lives and make a lot of decision out of the fear of what other people think and out of the desire for approval.” There are a lot of us waiting for someone to come along and give us permission to live our lives, Chris continues. “It’s like when you’re a kid, you can’t go to school and your mom or dad writes you this note. […] This permission slip then, becomes very powerful to you.”
What if you would write yourself your own permission slip? What if you would grant yourself permission to change? Wouldn’t that be liberating?
Don’t wait for validation from others. Allow yourself to change. You will face the challenges ahead with a different mindset, most likely with less fear and more gusto.
What would your permission slip say? Let me know in the comments below.
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This post initially appeared on grennimedia, now Communications Rebel, on Sept 24, 2012.
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