“I just don’t do well with change.” Most of us know someone like this, someone who eats the same meal every Monday or must take the same route home from work each day.  Perhaps you yourself are one of these people.  The thought of trying a new restaurant or deviating from your annual summer vacation spot seems preposterous.  The news that a new co-worker or supervisor has joined the team can mean weeks of worry.

While stability and predictability may offer comfort, our ability to adapt to change is directly linked to overall life satisfaction and happiness.  Flexible people tend to be healthier, experience less anxiety and have more fulfilling relationships.   Most jobs in the market today require employees to be multi-faceted and to quickly respond to new initiatives and opportunities. Education guidelines and standards seem to change with the seasons and teachers who are not agile can get bogged down by new curriculum and measurements.

People who assert that they ‘can’t handle change’ say they know this about themselves with certainty.  However, what they are likely more aware of is how they have been in the past and what they fear in the future.  They are probably not terribly aware of how they are affected by the immediate and present moment.  Consider the chameleon.  It does not change its color based on where it expects to go next.  What is unique in its survival technique is that the chameleon adapts to its immediate surroundings.

For humans, this is a little more difficult.  In order to adapt to or reject our surroundings we first have to learn how to become aware of them.  We need to learn to take in information from the environment and to pay attention to our own internal cues. We need to know more about how we make sense of our environment and ultimately find a way to be comfortable looking at our own areas for growth.

For many people it is easier to focus on the failures that have come from times we’ve tried to make a change. New situations start to feel like obstacles to growth rather than opportunities. Without a sense of optimism about our circumstances it be hard to imagine wanting to face challenges at all.

In Part II of this topic we’ll look at the ways we make sense of our world and how that may be keeping us stuck in the familiar.  Life may begin at the edge of our comfort zone, as my coffee cup says, but I sure don’t want to get too close to an edge without knowing more about my ability to move around it.