Embrace Change

How many people do you know that actually like change? Think about how you deal with change in your life and now think about how you deal with the spare “change” you have in your pocket. Most of us take whatever spare change is in our pockets and quickly store it away in a jar, and isn’t that what we attempt to do with the change that effects our lives too?Most of us fear whatever change we encounter in our lives and the world around us. Yet, nothing ever stays the same. Our bodies change in even the smallest of ways each and every second we age. The seasons change. Our children grow and learn (changing as they go). The world changes; admittedly not always for the good, but it is change nonetheless. So with all of this change around us, you'd think we would be used to change by now… figured out how to manage it… and stopped fearing the change in our lives. Yet, no matter how small the change we’re carrying is we do our best to free ourselves from it as quickly as we can; we dump it… run from it… attempt to compartmentalize it in an effort to keep it at bay! And for all of our effort, we get a giant lump of change (stored in a "jar") that we never utilize to our fullest advantage; we know it's there, we count it, track it, and yet, we push it aside to the point that it weighs us down.What is it about change that frightens us so much?Change in and around our world requires us to change with it, when we'd much rather stay comfortable, feet firmly planted, in what we know. Being with the unknown—doing things that are new and even slightly out of our comfort zones—is difficult for most people, but to manage change successfully you have to learn and grow with it. And you do that by embracing the change that comes your way. Leave your FEAR (not change) in the jar!If you attempt to control, compartmentalize, bury, or even accumulate change, you risk completely missing out on the opportunity that change brings you. Does that mean change is always easy? Of course not! Change is weighty, but it is also valuable. It has worth and when you use change as a means to learn and grow, you open up a whole new world of possibility.As W.E.B. DuBois said, "The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become."