Change is inevitable. Change is necessary. Change is hard. As life speeds along at an ever increase rate, we are faced with the reality of change. How we handle change will greatly affect the level of enjoyment we have in life. Fighting the inevitable is always a losing battle, so why do we do it?
When you are facing a change or a transition, it is really important to consider the following:
1. Acknowledge the Change: Denial isn’t helpful when it comes to change, it actually creates a high level of conscious, as well as subconscious stress. When we acknowledge the change, we are freeing ourselves from the hostage situation that denial creates. Another form of denial is minimizing change. When we minimize the potential effects of change we are not really acknowledging that we will be facing life differently. When we finally acknowledge change, we bring it to the light where it can’t go underground and affect our subconscious behavioral patterns.
2. Celebrate What Came Before. Too often, since we don’t like change, we choose to simply “power through it” and jump into the next great thing. This leaves a sense of unsettled-ness within. When we celebrate the transition, we give honor to the good things as well as grieve the hard things that preceded the change. This creates a sense of closure concerning the change, whether it was good or bad, which in turn helps us move forward without the baggage that, denial, minimizing or too fast a transition create. Closure is crucial for a healthy transition.
3. Remind Yourself That Change Helps You Grow. If we never experienced change, we would never grow. Remind yourself that change creates growth opportunities and will reveal the health of your emotional soul. You’ll need to remind yourself often…so in those moments when the stress from change is reaching the tipping point, remind yourself that God is larger than your circumstances and that the change He is allowing can be used to enlarge your faith.
Here are some great quotes about change:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
~Reinhold Niebuhr
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. ~Arnold Bennett
All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. ~Ellen Glasgow
If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. ~Carl Jung
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. ~Maya Angelou
If you’re in a bad situation, don’t worry it’ll change. If you’re in a good situation, don’t worry it’ll change. ~John A. Simone, Sr.
Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change. ~Confucius
They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. ~Confucius
Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. ~Frank Herbert
Change is the only constant. Hanging on is the only sin. ~Denise McCluggage
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. ~Andre Gide
In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks. ~Warren Buffett
Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, hungry before you, frightened before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, raped before you… yet, someone survived… You can do anything you choose to do.
~Maya Angelo
By changing nothing, nothing changes. ~Tony Robbins
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. ~Walter Anderson
Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change. ~Jim Rohn
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. ~George Bernard Shaw
You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. ~A.A. Milne
You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain
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