In our field of work, we use words like; progress, achieving stabilization, growth, advancement, and development. We help people achieve goals. We help people change. I, for the past two decades, have worked with some amazing and dedicated people. All devoted to helping people change. What’s puzzled me at times is these very dedicated people, myself included, are often resistant to change.
Given the current pandemic, it seems change has been forced on us. It has been difficult. It has been stressful and uncomfortable. But when you look back and take notice as to where we are now, it is less stressful and less uncomfortable. We wash our hands more frequently, we stay six feet away from others, we have trained ourselves to monitor our environment and pay closer attention to what we touch. All for the health and wellbeing of ourselves and the health and wellbeing of others. This “forced” change leads to benefit.
Many of us get comfortable with our routines. It’s what we know, what is familiar. We then have certain expectations, we have experienced outcomes and therefore expect these outcomes. This is great as it reduces stress and gives us a sense of “normal.” I put the word “normal” in quotation marks as a wise person once told me, “Normal is a setting on a washing machine.”
Think back to where you have come in life. In school, we were presented with a new kind of math, how to structure sentences, how to write research papers. All of these things were at one time unfamiliar to us, they were not our normal. But we attempted, at times failed and attempted again. Sometimes it was stressful. Sometimes it was scary. Why did we keep trying? Perhaps because our parents or teachers told us to but ultimately to better ourselves, to grow. Most often the reward of knowledge or skill was worth the stress and fear felt initially.
Now we are in our 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and beyond. Why stop bettering ourselves now? We, as human beings, have the ability to keep bettering ourselves, to keep growing. But like in our childhood or adolescence initially implementing change or growth comes with stress and fear. Instead of running from it, understand it and the rewards that may be reaped. More words from someone wise; “Courage is not the absence of fear, courage is doing what’s right in spite of fear.”
It doesn’t take a pandemic to implement change in your life. We can change, we can improve ourselves, we can achieve personal growth. Yes, it may come with discomfort, come with fear, come with stress. And there are no guarantees on rewards. But we will never know without trying.
I titled this, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I certainly to not want to insinuate anyone’s life is broken. But if we take the perspective of, “it may not be broken, but it can be better,” we can begin to tap our individual, team, agency and society’s potential.