'Progress is a wonderful thing -- it's change I hate.'
-- Mark Twain
Change is inevitable. In today's world, it has even become an absolute necessity for survival. Yet despite its constancy, change still evokes fear and resistance.
An example is the story about a barber in the Pittsburgh airport in the late sixties who said he would never change his operation to a unisex salon. He resisted that change until he went out of business, and has since been replaced by a salon.
I recently experienced this same resistance when critiqued by some of the world's top image consultants during a convention workshop. Among a number of recommended changes was the shaving of my 27-year-old mustache. I hesitated until a friend said, 'Isn't change a b______!' Upon realizing that change was the issue, not the mustache, I proceeded to shave it off-and the compliments have been unbelievable. My resistance to change had almost forced me to ignore the sage advice of the world's top professionals in the image field.
Does fear paralyze your ability to change? Do you resist change even against expert advice? Does your resistance jeopardize your business or sabotage your personal relationships?
Let's try to look at fear from an emotional perspective. I've heard fear described as 'false evidence appearing real.' How often that's proven true! I imagine a certain outcome to a difficult situation, and am paralyzed with fear. Yet once I overcome the fear and act, I usually find that the outcome I imagined had no basis in reality. That's why experts in psychology tell us that we have to walk through our fear to conquer it.
Are you making any headway in alleviating your sense of fear? Let's try the logical approach taught me by my Jesuit educators. All fears stem from losing something we have or not getting something we want. If you find yourself fearful of change, you have entered a philosopher's nightmare.
Our fear of change is oxymoronic. We're fearing the wrong thing. False evidence has definitely appeared real and fooled all of us. If change is truly inevitable and necessary for survival, our fears should be based not on change, but on failure to change. If we fail to change, we may lose our business, that valued client, or a special relationship. Similarly, we might not achieve the goals that we've set in our personal or professional lives.
I urge everyone to begin exercising their 'change muscle.' Pick anything-from a bad habit to a petty annoyance-and decide to change it. Commit to achieving the change, acknowledging that you may fall short at times. That's OK, as long as you pick yourself up and continue. As with any technique, our change muscle needs exercise and practice if it's to become an efficient tool in our lives. Embrace change! It can open the doors to an exciting world.