5 Signs You Fear Change… and How to Embrace That Fear

Stepping out of the comfort zone is scary. Doing something new can be terrifying. But good things come from making positive changes. Imagine if you’d never been confident enough to try a plate-sized Yorkshire pudding and instead only ate the little versions… what sort of a life would that be? It doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?

And it doesn’t stop at roast dinner trimmings. There are an unlimited number of opportunities out there that aren’t being explored because of fear. It’s a fear of upsetting the status quo; of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire; of failure. But it also means limiting personal growth, staying still, and not exploring your full potential.

A Fear of Change

Here are 5 of the most common signs that suggest you may be afraid of change:

1. You question your abilities, despite having the tools you need to succeed

2. You compare yourself to others to justify self doubts and concerns

3. You consistently seek validation in places you know you’ll never find it

4. You cling to existing titles, statuses, or possessions as part of who you are

5. You place your value in what you have now, not what you could achieve in future

Some coaches will tell you that a fear of change is bad; that it’s detrimental to success.

But I never was one to run with the crowd. I say that fear is OK if we approach it from the right angle. Rather than looking at how fear can stop us from implementing change, why not look at how fear can be the motivator we need to move forward?

Embracing Change

The truth is that change will happen, whether you facilitate it or not. If it’s not you driving change, it will be someone else. So if it’s going to happen anyway, why not embrace it and make change work for you, not against you? Here are some ways to embrace change, view it differently, and learn not to be afraid of trying something new:

● Take a data-driven approach

Change has been happening since we were born; trying new foods, meeting new people, learning new things… and yet by some sort of miracle we’re still here! Historic trends show that, to date, change hasn’t resulted in the end of the world; instead, it’s made us who we are today. Businesses are relying on big data like this more than ever, so it makes sense that we should be doing the same; taking a data-driven approach.

● Implement low risk change

We often think of ‘change’ as being disruptive change, but it doesn’t have to be. When embracing change, there’s no harm in starting small and focus on increasing confidence before making larger decisions. Even something as seemingly silly as ordering pizza on your weekly curry night can help to create a foundation on which to build. Practice makes perfect, and it’s absolutely no different when it comes to change.

● Acknowledge all possibilities

Humans are naturally pessimistic. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t exist! We’d have been eaten and wiped out long before now by unrivalled optimism. So when we think about the potential impact of change, we tend to focus on the negative possibilities. Instead, we need to make a conscious effort to consider the positives, too. We always seem to ask ‘but what if it doesn’t work?’, but we should also be asking ‘what if it does work?’

#fear #change #dealingwithchange