Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
Thirty-fifth president of the United States.
Change is inevitable. At this very moment, for instance, your body and cells are changing. The Earth is changing. The economy, technology, how we do business, even how we communicate is changing. And though you can resist that change and potentially be swept away by it, you can also choose to cooperate with it, adapt to it, and benefit from it.
Grow or Die
In 1910, Florists' Telegraph Delivery—known today as FTD—was founded by 15 American florists who began using the telegraph to exchange orders and deliver flowers to customers' loved ones thousands of miles away. Gone were the days when a daughter or sister would go to the local florist and order a small bouquet. Family members were relocating to cities and towns far from home. And FTD flourished by identifying this trend and combining it with the telegraph, which represented a change in the way we communicate.
Around the same time, the American railroad industry began to see the automobile and the airplane as new technologies designed to transport people and goods from place to place. But unlike other industries who readily embraced these new machines, the railroad industry resisted, believing instead that they were in the railroad business—not the business of transporting goods and people. They didn't realize what they were up against. They didn't grow. Though businesses focusing on the railroads might have become automobile and aircraft businesses, they didn't. As a result, they almost died out.
Where Do You Need to Grow?
When change happens, you can either cooperate with it and learn how to benefit from it or you can resist it and eventually get run over by it. It's your choice.
When you embrace change wholeheartedly as an inevitable part of life, looking for ways to use new changes to make your life richer, easier, and more fulfilling, your life will work much better. You will experience change as an opportunity for growth and new experiences. A few years ago, I was hired to consult with the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C.
They had just announced they were moving the entire command to San Diego, California, which meant that a lot of civil service jobs were going to be lost in that transition. My job was to conduct a seminar for all the nonmilitary personnel who would not be moving to California. And though the Naval Sea Systems Command had offered everyone jobs and transfers to San Diego (including reimbursement of all moving expenses) or assistance in locating a new job in the Washington, D.C., area, many of the employees had become almost frozen with fear and resentment.
Though nearly all of them looked at this change as a major disaster in their lives, I encouraged them to look at it as an opportunity—as something new. I taught them about E + R = O and how although the move to San Diego (E) was inevitable, their outcome—whether or not they flourished—afterward (O) was entirely dependent on their response (R) to the situation. "Perhaps you'll find a more empowering job in D.C.," I said, "or even get a job with better pay. Or maybe you would like to move to California where it's warm most of the year and new friends and adventures are awaiting you."
Slowly they began to move from panic and fear to realizing that things could indeed work out, maybe even for the better, if only they embraced this change as an opportunity to create something new and better.
How to Embrace Change
Realize that there are two kinds of change—cyclical change and structural change, neither of which you can control.
Cyclical change, such as the change we see in the stock market, happens several times a year. Prices go up and they go down. There are bull markets and corrections. We see seasonal changes in the weather, holiday spending by the American public, more travel in the summer, and so on. These are changes that happen in cycles, and frankly most of them we just accept as a normal part of life.
But there are also structural changes—such as when the computer was invented and completely changed how we live, work, get our news, and make purchases. Structural changes are the kinds of changes where there is no going back to doing things the way they were before. And these are the kinds of changes that can sweep you away if you resist them.
Like the Naval Sea Systems Command employees, FTD florists, or the railroad industry, will you embrace these structural changes and work to improve your life—or will you resist them?
Remember back to a time when you experienced a change but resisted. Perhaps it was a move, a job transfer, a change in suppliers, a change in technology in your company, a change in management, or even your teenager going off to college—a change you were going to have to deal with and you thought it was the worst thing in the world.
What happened once you surrendered to the change? Did your life actually eventually improve? Can you look back now and say, "Wow, I'm glad that happened. Look at the good it eventually brought me."
If you can always remember that you've been through changes in the past—and that they've largely worked out for the best—you can begin to approach each new change with the excitement and anticipation you should. To help embrace any change, ask yourself the following questions:
What's changing in my life that I'm currently resisting?
Why am I resisting that change?
What am I afraid of with respect to this change?
What am I afraid might happen to me?
What's the payoff for my keeping things the way they are?
What's the cost I'm paying for keeping things the way they are?
What benefits might there be in this change?
What would I have to do to cooperate with this change?
What's the next step I could take to cooperate with this change?
When will I take it?
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