This article shows you why, despite appearances, it is safer to change than to stay the same and settled.
Here are 7 principles of change as spelled out in 7 ageless words of wisdom.
1. Flow With The Natural Flow of Things. If you understand that all of life is made up of cycles of change, then it becomes easy to understand that at different stages of the cycle, things may be rising or falling, coming in or going out, failing or succeeding. As Helena Blavatsky says, the person who can flow with the natural pace of things can master change: "To act and act wisely when the time for action comes, to wait and wait patiently when it is time for repose, puts man in accord with the rising and falling tides of affairs, so that with nature and law at his back and truth and beneficence as his beacon light, he may accomplish wonders."
2. Accept the Messy Nature of Change. There's nothing neat and tidy about managing change. For a start you have to prepare for something different now while you are working on other things. And second, the other things might just get in the way. As Otto Neurath explains, it is the recipe for chaos: "In life, changing is like being in a ship on the sea: you must build a new boat with material from the old one you're travelling in; you can't go on shore to destroy the old one first and then build a new one - but you have to re-construct while sailing."
3. Time Things Right. Whatever you're working on now will eventually die off unless you initiate change at just the right moment. The right moment is before your current change cycle peaks and starts to die off. That's when you can take a risk without risking all. As W.Clement Stone says: "Every growing organism grows into maturity, levels off and dies, unless there is new life, new blood, new activity, new ideas."
4. Let Go Of Old Ways. If there is pain in managing change, it comes from our unwillingness to let go of things we have become attached to, such as familiar ways, status, position, titles, even old faces. But if these things no longer serve you, you need to let them go, and let them go with love and gratitude. As Alan Cohen says, it takes courage: "It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."
5. Take Calculated Risks. Managing change successfully teaches us that the prizes go to the person who dares, not the person who seeks out safety. Having said that, you should not take foolhardy risks, nor risks which you haven't calculated. Listen to what Helen Keller says: "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable."
6. Keep Learning. The key to successful change is learning: learning new skills, new ideas, new opportunities, new ways of learning. As Henry Steele Commager put it: "Change does not necessarily assure progress but progress implacably assures change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them."
7. Enjoy The Process and Wonder of Change. The real prize of managing change is not where we end up. It's impossible to know the destination in any case. It could be less than we imagine or much greater. No, the magic of managing change lies in the process of change and what we learn about ourselves and others. As Tad Williams says: "He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish. No matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder."
The history of life is the history of change. Change is ever-present. It fascinated our ancestors and will continue to fascinate our great-great-great grandchildren. When we learn from the past how to manage change, we make our mark on life in ways we cannot even imagine.
© Adcidia™ 2010 (Article99.com)
