How willing are you to experience the discomfort that comes with change? To try new things that might feel weird? And where results may not be immediate, but will only come with time, effort and commitment?
Ask people if they like change you’ll rarely get a positive answer. At best people might pay lip-service and say they want things to change… but deep down they’re not ready to go on the journey this will involve.
One response to change can be resistance. Yet with resistance comes acceptance. Accepting that things can be better. As Michael Neil writes it in his latest blog post ‘The invisible key to making change happen’
“In order to resist an idea, I have to first buy into its existence, plausibility, and relevance. If I’m not already bought in at some level to the reality of a new change initiative in my life, I won’t resist it – I’ll ignore it altogether.”
In times of uncertainty, whether they are external (political, social) or personal (sudden changes to health, career, relationships etc.), I’ve found it’s always good to be reminded of the Kubler-Ross model that articulates the different stages we’ll go through either as individuals or as an organisation.
The Kubler-Ross model is popularly known as the 5 stages of grief.
When in 1969 Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-American psychiatrist, wrote about these stages she explained that these are the normal reactions we have to tragic news. They are the defense or coping mechanisms we will put in place in order to manage change.
Although the stages were first observed as a human response to a terminal illness, they have also been used to understand our human responses to all kind of changes.
During a period of change we will keep moving through those stages not necessarily in a neat and linear way, in fact some stages can happen simultaneously or you can find yourself going back to a previous stage. They also can last for different period of times.
However if you find yourself stuck in the stage of anger or depression, change will be unsuccessful. They are unpleasant and painful stages but once we pass them, that’s when we start seeing the real shifts – no matter how small they seem at first.
So remember accepting and embracing change is the first step to regain control of the process and become the owner of your story.
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