Change

Is change good ? It can be, and when it heralds potential, it's often not a bad thing - growing up, getting your driver's license and your first 'really big" job. Change is inevitably unsettling though, and our reaction to it probably correlates to our experiences with change in the past. If every time I've seen my job change it's meant I've been fired, then I'm probably not going to be a big fan of change.

Change in our personal relationships is often described in terms of being broken - as in heartbroken, or I broke up with them. Healthy change is the outcome of many growing personal relationships, and yet we don't seem to characterize it that way. It's an interesting difference from how we look at other types of changes.

Sometime it'll be totally within your control, or at least the degree of control you wish to have - "I sold my whole life on eBay" stories notwithstanding. Sometimes not, as the unfortunate few who are victims of boom/bust real estate cycles can attest to. In both cases, the unsettling aspects remain however as we never know exactly how a new situation will turn out.

Like thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies, there are also change addicts out there, people who seem to thrive on a bit of chaos and live in it. I've often wondered if change becomes the 'norm', does it still count as change ? After-all, the word carries a few parallel connotations, one of which has to be a lack of 'normal'.

Should we embrace change, and try to use it as a growing experience ? Well, there isn't really an option to hide from it, so this attitude is viewed as the healthy positive outlook. How then to deal with the dichotomy of embracing the unsettling ? Well, I imagine that represents the challenge of change, and why success in navigating through it is generally positively regarded by peers, family and friends.

Whatever the reason or degree of change you're experiencing, let's wish each other positive outcomes. Change is hard enough to manage, without it.