Adventurous Philosopher

Riding the Waves of Change aka Hints on how to deal with change

Since I am a big proponent of trying new things all the time, my life is constantly changing. The last 6 months alone, I have fasted (more on that to come), changed my keyboard layout, started a business, started meditating for half an hour each day, loaded vista (I did not say all the changes were good ), tried Ubuntu (I am usually a Debian fan), and that is just the short list.

• How do people deal with change?
• Fear
• Resistance
• Acceptance – with contempt
• Denial
• Jumping head on into it.

Let’s look at change as an ocean wave. It is neither good nor bad. The only things that changes is our perspective on it. If I am under it and I can’t swim, I would be afraid; however, if I was on a cliff watching waves crash as the sun sets, my perceptions changes to reflect one of beauty, awe, and the power of nature.

If change is a wave and it is approaching me, how can I react?
• I can choose fear and try to flee.
• I can choose resistance and fight the ocean, dig my feet into the stand and try and stay there.
• I can choose reluctant acceptance laced with contempt and withdraw to the dry sand or leave the beach all together and be angry at the wave.
• I can choose denial and pretend not to see the wave even as it over takes me and sweeps me out to sea.
• I can choose to jump into the wave, swim through it, and surf it. I can use the wave to my advantage and have some fun.

All the waves here are the same; the only aspect that changes is my perspective. How do you deal with change?

In the sprit of ProBlogger Group Writing Project here are my top 5 ways that I approach change, followed by the top 5 ways you might want to try if you are not the adventurous type.

How I approach change:
1. Research what I can. I give myself a time limit usually a couple days to a couple weeks depending on how big the change. Then even if I don’t know everything about it yet, I will figure it out, but I need to leap and try it now.
2. Jump right in. I might not know how to swim, and I might not know how to surf, but I can have a great time anyway. (I really can swim, but my surfing skills are questionable )
3. Many changes can be temporary. If I don’t like it, I can undo it.
4. If I see something cool or something that might be helpful, I try it. How hard is it really to try something new and out of character? It can be really fun and quite liberating.
5. Make it a game. This works especially well for me if I find this to be a hard but worthwhile change. An example of this for me would be getting up at 5 am all the time. I have not tried this but when I do, it will be a game. I don’t ask myself, can I do this? But more like, what will I get out of it, how can I do it, would my readers be interested and get value out of this, can I make a bet with someone?

How to try and approach change if you are not too adventurous:
1. Take it slow. Baby steps still get you to the end result. Don’t feel the need to kill yourself just to do it a little faster. If you like it, you can spend years enjoying the end result without a traumatic change.
2. If you have a goal you want to meet, set reasonable mini goals to meet on your way to bigger goal.
3. Remember change is temporary. If you want to make a lifestyle change then try it for a set period of time. Change does not have to be forever. If you want to stop eating meat, don’t think of it as you are eating your last steak forever. Instead, view it as an opportunity to try new foods for 30 days. See what you think after 30 days. Once you have gone for 30 days, you can decide to keep it up, or not.
4. Make it fun. Change does not have to kill you. It can be something you have always wanted to do. Change to get up early, take up basketball, hike more, meditate, etc.
5. Get someone to do it with you. Find someone who wants to try not eating meat or going vegan. Find someone to play tennis with you or go for a walk everyday. Join a gym with open basketball. Take a class. Find a surfing buddy.

Adrienne

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 5:20 pm and is filed under The Thinker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.