How To Deal With Change

Every Author has a mentor. One of my favorite mentors is Dr. Spencer Johnson. In his ninety five paged book; 

‘Who Moved My Cheese?’,

Dr. Spencer clearly illustrates how to deal with change in life. He tells a story of four characters; two mice and two little people. One morning they all wake up to find their cheese gone; the mice keep things pretty simple by moving on quickly. On the other hand, the little people immediately begin to struggle with complex theories and allegorical questions trying to justify as to why they feel their cheese ought not to have been moved.

Cheese symbolizes something of value, something that we all for in life; either at work place, at home, from friends, from the community or generally out of life. To be more specific, it could be a raise in salary at the work place, a new friendship or love, a promotion, a good job, a happy family, a great car, a fat bank account or simply success in life. In life, ‘the cheese’ is always static; it does not change in any form or value. But change is constantly associated with reaching ‘the cheese’ on a daily basis. It is of interest to note, that the two mice finds a new cheese station before the two little people come into terms with the new change that they have to confront.

Change is a concept that most of us seldom accept. It inevitably interferes with the daily livelihoods of people or “how they normally get their things or want their things done”. We are all quick to welcome and embrace changes that do occur naturally; like say watching a child growing from a toddler to an adult. Human beings have no problem with change(s) associated with supernatural powers as opposed to those changes that do occur out of influence of fellow human beings.

We have to accept that change is inevitable in life. And more often, it comes when we least expect it. It is therefore, a disturbing nature of human beings, to confine ourselves to ‘our familiar zones’. We’ve got to get out of our familiar zones and expect change to happen; sooner or later. A famous quote says that: “God grant me the serenity to accept things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can and the wisdom to always know the difference”. I honestly do believe that this is the best prayer line whenever change occurs.

Martin L. King Jr. wrote that “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy”. No all change is either good or necessary, but it is the world which dictates the norm and requisites of each day. When change happens, when need to adapt quickly and let go of the past. The sooner you let go of the past, the sooner you will be able to appreciate and even enjoy the privileges of the present and even of the future.

We’ve got to change ourselves in order to enjoy change and savour the adventure. But above all, we should not resist change. It is extremely dangerous, in quest towards success, for one to live within their comfort zones. It is pretty normal at times to feel insecure and vulnerable. Stretch your limits. Until you try, you may never know how much you are worth or how much you can achieve.

Instead of building your nest high up where you will feel safe, learn to change, to positively embrace change, to positively adapt to change and to be role models in helping others adapt to change too.

Sometimes change may present an ugly side, in form of; may be a loss of a dear one or maybe a family’s bread winner. Nonetheless, weirdly, life goes on even on such dark moments. Given time, we each know how best to adapt to such ugly life circumstances. That given time, all will be water under the bridge. ‘The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising ever time we fall’. Nelson Mandela.

Sometimes life obstacles and challenges may knock you down time and time again. You’ve got to learn to push forward in such dark moments; when others would readily quit. You simply have to refuse to quit. The dark moments in life are temporary. Such moments may last for some minutes, an hour, a day or even a year. But eventually they will subside and disappear.

In a scene in one of my favorite movies; Rocky Balboa, I am honestly in love with a scene where Rocky is forced to dig deep and try to explain to his Son how winning is done. He tells him that; ‘The world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and doesn’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. But it’s not how hard you can get hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now if you know how much you are worth then go out and get what you are worth. But you have to be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying, you are not where you want to be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that, and that’s not you. …… but until you start believing in yourself, you will not to have a life’.