Growing with Change

We live in a world with constant, often times dramatic change. The key to success and happiness is to learn to grow with change vs what a lot of people do which is to become fixed and resistant to change.

Looking back over long periods of history, it is clear the pace of change is accelerating; for example the Industrial Revolution lasted from 1760-1840. The dot-com boom was pronounced from 1990-2000. Now we seem to be in a new era called generative AI, and we haven’t even gotten to quantum computing, Yet.

From a societal perspective it is clear humans have benefited from change because it is generally related to innovation which creates new, better and more efficient ways to “do things.” Not to say all change is good, but broadly I believe it has been and will be.

From an individual perspective, change can be good or bad in terms of it’s impact on the person’s success and happiness. The key is how one responds to change. Some people don’t handle change well and tend to resist, become polarized or fixed in their mindset and psychologically become the victim.

I think the main reason people resist change is because it creates a sense of insecurity and fear. In a great little book “Who Moved My Cheese?” Dr. Spencer Johnson said that “what you are afraid of is never as bad as you imagined. The fear you build up in your mind is worse than the situation that actually exists.” Exactly; we often times see the negatives from change, refuse to see the positives, and resist it to our own disadvantage.

But why? When people are not anchored in life with a strong sense of purpose they get focused on the how/what of life, not the Why. Decades ago some organizations saw themselves as being in the buggy whip business rather than transportation. When forms of transportation changed rapidly, those organizations resisted and went away.

It’s the same with individuals; if we see ourselves as being what we do (i.e., I’m a banker), we get entrenched in our value in life as being due to what we do, what skills we have, or how we look etc. So, when the world changes and our current skills aren’t needed anymore, we tend to resist learning new skills and blame others for what happened to me. People with a growth mindset and a clear sense of purpose see the change as an opportunity to learn, grow and accomplish their purpose even better with new tools, skills etc.

During my 50 years in banking I saw a lot of changes and my jobs and required skills changed a lot. Fortunately, I was blessed because I saw my purpose as trying to make a positive Godly impact on as many lives as I could. So, how I did it didn’t matter as long as it was consistent with my values.

So my advice is to embrace change, focus on your purpose and Help Others. Plant seeds of Hope (Smile). Remember, your life matters. God bless you.