Accepting Change

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

– Winston Churchill

We’ve talked about the fear of change and the benefits of it, but sometimes understanding these things aren’t enough to accept it or to even want to change.

As human beings, it is in our nature to evolve — to change. It’s how we move forward and how we create new and better things.

Though you have to be willing to change and understand that there needs to be a change before you can make any real progress towards changing for the better.

A lot of people say “It’s time for a change” or that they want to change, then these same people fall back into the exact same habits they’ve been trying to change.

Allowing yourself to move forward is as difficult or as simple and you’re willing to make it. If you are really struggling with change, yet have the desire to change, you’re really going to need to work at it. The saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” exists for a reason: it’s difficult to break ourselves of the habits we’ve grown accustomed to.

If I’d like to be more sociable, I would need to break myself of my habit of quietly sitting in the back of the room and not really engaging anyone. And I can’t just say, “This is the day I where I erase all of my fears and anti-social behaviors” and be done with the whole thing. I need to practice being more social. I need to practice being more build myself up in order to break myself of the anti-social tendencies I’ve accrued.

Forbes has a few wonderful tips on how to break yourself of the habits that most people wish they could change about themselves. The article gives you advice on how to improve your optimism, self-awareness, focus, social skills, emotions, and your compassion. However, all of these things have one thing in common: they require you to actively work at improving them.

You must consistently adjust your thoughts in order to improve your optimism; you have to meditate on yourself to improve your awareness; you have to train yourself to focus on one thing for a short period of time every day; you must train yourself to understand body language and social cues in order to improve your social skills; you have to actively calm yourself when you begin to feel very emotional; and you have to regularly imagine how others feel in order to improve your compassion.

These things take time and they take work. The sooner you take the time to begin bettering yourself, the sooner you’ll start noticing a change in yourself. The only person you can rely on to help you change is you. So stop waiting for someone to change you – it’s up to you to be that force for change that you desire!