Change is in the Air – How to Cope

I should mention, as a matter of perspective, that change is always in the air. Life never remains static. The questions to ask about change are - how big is the change and how much will it affect you and the things you care about. For example, the introduction of web technology caused massive changes for some and relatively minor changes for others. If you were the owner of a local independent bookstore, a journalist, or in one of the many professions that were profoundly altered by the web, then the changes to your life were pretty massive. However, if you were someone who used to order products from a catalog and just started ordering them on the web instead, the changes were not that great. For any change, there are those who will see it as "everything changed" and others who will see it as "just a different way of doing what you always have done before".

Massive changes can affect your identity as well as your profession. For example, if you were a steel working when the steel industry evaporated, it was not only a professional dislocation but a loss of identity.  Even if you managed to land a new job, with good prospects, the way you viewed your self in the steel industry was probably very different from the way you see yourself trying to climb the corporate ladder. So even if you managed to recover financially, creating a new identity would still be a challenge.

Let us assume, for the sake of this post, that you are one of those whose life will change significantly. What can yo do to  ? It is, as they say, easier said than done. But, the first step is to avoid denial. If things around you are changing in significant ways, you have two choices: accept that things are changing, or deny the change and put your fate in the turbulent forces of the change. Most people would say that avoiding denial and accepting the change is the way to go. But, most people actually do the opposite. One of my favorite pundits, Gerald Weinberg, once said something to the effect that people will only change to keep something bigger from changing. I think there is a lot of wisdom in that. Since one's identify and profession are pretty big things, they are only likely to change them to keep something bigger from changing like their livelihood and their ability to survive.

Once you have accepted that change is occurring the next step is to adapt. This is a challenge because you are replacing the familiar with the unfamiliar, the predictable with the unpredictable, and security with risk. Still, you need to find a way to incorporate the change into your life. And here is a tip that might help. If you had to move to a new city for some reason you would experience many of the same things. But, you wouldn't stay locked up in your apartment. You would go out and find where the shops are. You would find what attractions the new city offered. You would find out how the transportation system worked, what local customs were and so on. Initially, it would all be strange. But eventually, it would become familiar. When change comes don't stay locked up in the past. Get out and find out what is going on. Initially, it will be strange. But eventually it will become familiar.