from the Slight Edge Newsletter
FOUR WAYS TO MASTER CHANGE
by Sheila Murray Bethel
We are living in an exciting age of unprecedented change.
Today's accelerated rate of change presents us with unique
challenges and opportunities. When change brings success, keep
your ego from getting out of hand. When the change is
negative, use your sense of humor to get through it. Once you
learn to handle change, you can take your skills, talents, and
abilities and help others change.
Let's look at four ways to enhance your mastery of change.
No. 1 Don't Fight It.
The natural tendency is to protect what you know and value,
what has become familiar and comfortable. Unfortunately the
world will change with or without you. So you must adapt again
and again. You make your life so much more complicated when
you fight the change. You cause yourself stress and can
actually become ill. Remember the old Serenity Prayer: God
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know
the difference.
No. 2 You Don't Have to Like the Change.
No one ever said you have to like the changes you are
experiencing. However, you do have to understand them so you
can progress. Study, explore, and read everything you can
about the current matters that affect your perception and
handling of change. Life is not always about "liking". It is
about doing the best you can, with what you've got and getting
on with it--right now!
No. 3 Know What to Defend Against Change.
There are some things we should resist changing because change
does not always translate into better. Change for the sake of
change alone can destroy valuable situations, assets, and
relationships. Many values deserved to be defended. Ask
yourself what you will change and what you will defend.
No. 4 Have a Sense of Humor.
Humor can give you a momentary "emotional vacation." A sense
of humor can conquer pretense, and diffuse anger and
hostility. It can take an impossible situation and change it
into an acceptable one. The old axiom, "if you take yourself
too seriously, no one else will," is key. The most effective
people are spontaneous and can use humor to express their
feelings, and to encourage others.
When you set out to be a change master and to make a
difference in this world, there is no guarantee that it will
be easy. By learning about change, serving others and helping
them to learn to change, you will indeed be making a
difference.
|
