Embracing Change and Why Change is Good

Change is often anxiety inducing. What’s happening? Why? Will everything be ok? If you know me, you’ll know I used to be a great person for routine, I did the same thing everyday at exactly the same time in exactly the same way. The key word there is “used to be”. 

You see despite being Autistic I learned to embrace changes for what they are, and what they can bring. 

My parents though will find that hilarious, as when I was younger if you tried to break my routine there would be more drama than a telenovela. 

How to Embrace Change

The core of embracing change comes down to a mindset, getting in the right headspace can be tough. Don’t rush adopting the mindset, be aware of yourself and set small targets to help you embrace change. 

My breakthrough first came when in my early 20’s (I’m 27 now), I took a multi-week solo trip around Europe. I’d never been to a different country before, much less on my own. 

Everything was new, and it was time to embrace the change. I grew more in those two weeks than I had in the previous 5 years. 

Being comfortable bred familiarity and kept me static like I was caught-in-time. That trip allowed me to break out of my comfort zone and embrace the difference. 

A couple of weeks before I left, I met a great woman visiting from Brazil who I’m now proud to call my wife. 

And then there’s more change, we moved in together a few months later, moved countries a year later (Portugal), got married, and then later moved back to London. And the whole process was change. 

If you’d have told a 20 year old me that I’d even begin to think about moving countries he would have laughed uncontrollably, yet here I was embracing change. 

Did I make a concrete effort on changing? Yes, and no. I didn’t have core set dates for any goals but I did, and do always have goals in black and white both personally and professionally and change is what moves me closer to achieving those goals. 

Changing Professionally

Everyone has had a job that was an easy-ride. You clock-in, do your work and go home. Rinse and repeat, and for some people that’s what they want and that’s fine. 

For me it was never enough, I wanted more, to be more, grow more. And if that’s you then the best way is to find somewhere that embraces anyone from junior to executive. 

Ask intelligent questions, ask dumb questions, ask all the questions. A question is always a learning moment, often asked to someone who can teach you something new. 

Your professional growth comes from being under leaders that both give you opportunities but also act as mentors not only bosses. 

It isn’t always easy to find leadership that are biased toward mentorship, and not flat “Do this, do that”. But don’t give up as they are out there. 

Embracing change is the best way to meet your goals. Let’s say your goal is to make $200,000 a year, embracing change slowly gets you there, job changes, promotions, learning skills just to name a few. 

Yet if you stay static in your position and never get to learn anything new, you can’t meet your goal. 

Your goals directly correlate to change being needed in your life. And once you embrace that change, you’ll be able to achieve what you want. 

Changing doesn’t come easy

While I touched on it above, change really doesn’t come easy. You have to take action, want to take action, and be open to embracing what comes next. 

If you want to grow you always have to take action, in all aspects of life. You won’t meet your life partner by sitting in a dark room watching soap operas, you won’t get your dream body by eating 6,000 calories a day and doing no exercise, you won’t buy your dream house by staying stuck in your dead-end job making $10/hr. 

Whatever you want in life, you need to put in the effort to grab it, embrace the change and go after your goals. 

In short. Embrace the change, surf the wave, and see where the change takes you. If you don’t like the destination you can always embrace the change, and take action to take the outcome.