Change is inevitable but you have the ability to control how you react to it. How you react determines whether you become stagnate or grow. Follow these simple strategies below to make change work for you!
Change can be so scary and may be filled with anxiety and stress because, well let’s face it, change is hard! That change could be self-chosen or involuntary. It could be a wonderful change such as a marriage or a difficult change such as a job loss. Even the best change comes with trepidation and anxiety, however. A marriage may combine families or incomes which may bring about stress. An exciting new job opportunity may mean saying goodbye to friends.
Studies have shown that you exhibit the same physiological changes for both anxiety and excitement which include an elevated heart rate and raised cortisol levels. However, as we all know these two feel very different to us as we experience them. Even though your body processes both feelings the same, our mind perceives the situations much differently. This is a great example of the power of your mind!
FAKE IT UNTIL YOU BELIEVE IT
”Change begins at the end of your comfort zone"
So what can we do with this knowledge? You likely have heard the saying “Fake it until you make it” but I like to say “fake it until you believe it.” As crazy as it seems, there is something to this. Verbalizing, even things that you initially may not believe, has such a powerful effect. The more you verbalize, the more your mind starts to believe it to be true. A quick exercise for you to try is to state how you are feeling about something “I am scared of/to“ and replace that with “I am excited to“. Just merely making that change in your thoughts and words can bring about a huge shift in the way you perceive the situation. Continue to use that replacement phrase and you will really begin to experience the shift within.
TAKE OFF THE BLINDERS
Focusing on the upside of a situation can also have significant impacts on the way you view a situation. Taking your mind off the negative (which is naturally where we all go) and finding and focusing on the positive can shift your mindset. When we focus on the negative, it is all we seem to see, and we lose sight of the opportunities and benefits of the change. It’s almost as if we have negative blinders on. Although this will not come natural, especially at first, I challenge you to consciously make the decision to take those blinders off and put on the positive blinders.
Without even knowing it, we filter things all the time (could you imagine if we didn’t, we would experience sensory overload all day long). For instance, have you ever had an experience where you are looking at buying a car and suddenly that particular make and model is all you see on the roads? This is an example of how you filter what you see to reflect what is currently important to you. You can use that same strategy here. Start flipping the switch and focusing on the positive and you will start to realize the amazing opportunities that await.
Change is inevitable
One thing is certain, change is a normal part of life. The good news is that with a little conscious effort, you can shift your focus away from the worry and instead focus your energy on leveraging the change to work for you. As John C. Maxwell stated “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional”. Don’t hold yourself back from growing and learning by expending all your energy worrying, use your energy to GROW!