Change Is Good If You Don't Mind
Change is good if you don't mind.
This is the way to live a happy life, not with hesitation, but with passion and resilience. Change is constantly happening in every aspect of our lives and freedom we want to be able to make those changes on our own terms. But sometimes that’s easier said than done because there are certain situations where it seems like everything gets thrown off balance, making it difficult for us to enjoy ourselves or even get things done the way we want them done.
But have no fear! There are some healthy ways of handling these kinds of situations while still having a few moments of fun in the process. So in this article we are going to explore the topic of change and how it affects our everyday lives.
The phases of change
Change is a very integral part of life and we have probably lived through all 6 phases of change by now. These phases start with 1) preparation, 2) action, 3) resistance, 4) assimilation, 5) accommodation and 6) adaptation - as you might remember from your high school psychology class.
So what exactly do these phases mean? Let’s take a look:
A WRAP UP FOR THE DAY – If you haven’t already read our previous article regarding how this whole mindset thing can apply to real life success click here .
The Preparation Phase
This is where you start the process of changing something about your life. You might experience this phase as a slow buildup of feelings that cause you to change everything about yourself, or you might experience it as a sudden revelation. No matter how it happens, preparation is the first step towards making real change in your life.
The Action Phase
In this phase you actually start doing stuff to make the changes that you want to make in your life. This is when they become more concrete and when they tend to have more meaning than simply just thinking them. Action is the most important phase in the process and it’s when change happens for you.
The Resistance Phase
This is where things get difficult. Sometimes you might find yourself resisting certain types of change that may not seem to be a good fit for you from a long term perspective, or maybe you're just lying in bed thinking "what was I thinking" because things are not working out at all. The point is that resistance is an extremely important part of this whole concept of change because it helps us to become more aware of our issues and weaknesses, but also helps us to recognize and work on them so we can progress in our growth process.
The Assimilation Phase
This is the phase where things start to settle down and things become more normal. You might feel like you’re missing out on something because things don’t seem to be changing much, but that's ok! This is a new stage of the change process which doesn’t necessarily mean you've hit rock bottom. It's this phase that helps us to understand how we can better incorporate our new experiences into our lives without becoming overwhelmed by them. With knowledge, we are able to adjust accordingly and learn more about ourselves and hopefully take better action as well.
The Accommodation Phase
In this phase everything starts to blend together and everything gets a little easier. This is where we start to develop new habits and where things just feel more natural. We might still miss certain things about the previous way of doing things, but overall it's not a bad feeling.
The Adaptation Phase
In this phase we have finally reached the last stage of the change process, which means we are going to become more accepting of our new reality and we start to build upon it in a positive way. This is also the phase where you become most aware of how much you have changed, but in a good way because there are so many possibilities for learning, growing and improving on everything about yourself. You can have more fun with the new you, because it just works!
What about the Action Phase?
So what about that action phase where change happens? What strategies can we use to be successful in this phase of change management? Well there are a few things we can do to help us in our process of change. The first thing is to realize that your life doesn't have to be perfect before you start making any changes. You don't need to find Mr. Right before you decide to settle down and become a mother. You don't need a 140 credit score and $1 million dollars in your bank account before you feel like moving out of your mom's basement. You can start making changes before you have the perfect body or the perfect job to fit your current lifestyle. Remember: change is good if you don't mind!
The other thing is to remember how much of your life is already changed. The first step in any kind of change process is to be aware of what has changed and what hasn't – for many, a great deal of our lives are constantly in a state of flux. For others it’s only a few things instead of mostly everything, and that's ok! You don't have to only begin changing when you've reached this phase. It’s best to begin small and work your way up.
The last thing is to create a safe space where you can experiment with these new things that you're trying to make changes in. This might be your bedroom, your kitchen or your living room, but the important thing is that you are relaxed and comfortable enough to try out whatever new ideas and habits you come up with. Try talking about them with everyone you know, but nobody's going to follow you if they don't have a way of keeping up with what’s happening both in real time and in the future!
How to create an action plan for change:
Every change requires some kind of action plan, whether it's changing jobs or changing relationships. In the same way, you need a plan to implement all the changes and ideas that you have. The best thing is to create a list from A to Z of everything that you want to change and work on. It might include your job, your personality, your relationships and more besides.
The most valuable rule about any kind of action plan for change is that it should be flexible, because this doesn’t mean that all things that are on the list are easy to implement or simultaneously. It just means that they're manageable little steps one by one in a defined order. I like to make my action plan in a form of a checklist, because it makes it easier for us to track where we are and where we need to be.
This is a very basic example of an action plan for change. It includes all the changes that you have set out to make in your life, but this can look completely different depending on what you're trying to do.
After you've made your list, you can start checking off all the things from it one by one as you go along in your journey towards change management. Change is scary sometimes, but if we have a plan it will help us stay focused and give us something to work towards every day.
Conclusion
Well, this was just a general look at change management and how it all fits together to create a better way of living our lives. This is not the last you'll ever hear about this, because it's an important and interesting topic for anyone who is interested in personal growth.
Depending on your situation, you might want to think about contact therapy for a while first before applying the steps in this article, but I really hope that you’ll find some useful information from this article. As usual, if you have any questions or comments I’ll be happy to answer them! Feel free to bookmark this page and visit again in the future.