We all hate change, but why?

Can you find me? :)

I was reading my new "Bad Ass" book again yesterday and I got kind of lost in a certain section where the author begins talking about each of our purposes and how change ALWAYS is a good thing and I had to stop and ponder if I really agreed that it is ALWAYS good...what if change involves losing a job and living on food stamps or involves losing a loved one and going through life without them? Is it still good? It is so easy to see how change can be good when it involves something easy or something exciting like a promotion so now you have to get used to bigger paychecks or a new city with endless opportunities, but why is it so hard for some of us to accept change in our lives if we don't know where they lead?

The answer is exactly in the question...because we don't like the "unknown"! We our taught our whole lives to map out our plan, come up with a 5 year/10 year goal, write up a schedule, plan out our whole life to keep from xyz from happening because heaven forbid something "unplanned" comes up you won't have any idea how to handle it or what to do with a foreign idea/event.

It's like your first day of college (Ha remember how intimidating that was...or your first day at a new job)...you graduate high school thinking you just know everything and you have officially hit the top of the food chain and are ready to conquer the world and college is going to be nothing but an amplified version of your Senior year. Then you step on campus the first day and you know nobody, you don't know where your classes are, who your professors are, how to get from point A to point B some how in the 15 minute gap you have between classes and you have a complete breakdown your first week of classes because you have NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

The same is true with new jobs, new churches, new friends, a new marriage, changing career paths, changing diet and fitness regimens, everything! It sounds all exciting and great until we get into it and realize we are lost and clueless as to how life works like this. What happens next though?....

We take things day by day. We learn through trial and error. We learn our strengths and weaknesses. We learn our passions and what inspires us. We find out what is important to us when for a while we thought things like money, social status, and looks were all that mattered. We learn to dig deep and push through the discomfort because EVERY SINGLE TIME it leads to something greater and an opportunity of personal growth. Think about it, every time both easy and hard that you have experienced change...looking back, have you not grown into a better person? Have you not learned something that you would not have known if you wouldn't have gone through that? Maybe you learned to value people more or to spend more time with loved ones than at work. Maybe you quit being so hard on yourself for screwing up something because you realized everyone screws up and even screw ups are just ways of being directed to where you're supposed to be.

I am currently experiencing a ton of change in my own life between new friendships, new business endeavors, this blog, new connections, a new church, and new traveling adventures and yes some of it does scare the crap out of me because I am learning every day and have no idea what the outcome will be, but when I reflect back at every other time in my life that has been this way...I realize, if I want something greater or different then I have to do something greater and different. I have to get out of my routine and get out of my comfort zone. It also forces you to TRUST YOUR OWN INTUITION knowing that God's going to get you where you need to be and YOU know better than anyone else what is right for your life! If you feel like it's time to pursue something then don't ask everyone else if you should, go with what you feel you should do and surround yourself with people who support you!

So after all of that...I guess I do agree with the author's statement that all change is good because even the hard times created growth and new opportunities to find out who I am and what life is really all about. When you look at it that way, change isn't all that scary :) Do something that you have been scared to do even if it's just trying out a new social group or going to a job interview and look at it as a door way to a chance for you to grow and experience life differently!