Why Change is Universal
Don't read on if you are looking for Earth-shattering revelations. This is all stuff you already know. It just happens to be true. As a Change Management professional, who is into both the psychology and science of change, there are three basic facts that you need to know about why change is universal.
Things are changing all the time
This includes, but is not limited to people, places, circumstances, physical conditions, psychological triggers. If you think that things will always stay the same, you are mistaken.
– Your kids, your pets and your family members will grow older and their needs will change
– Your perspectives will shift and your priorities will change
– The staff in your office will come and go
– Your organisational objectives will transform
Every little and big calibration will resonate in some way on your personal and professional landscape. Consider, for example, how an unexpected downpour of rain, can set of a trigger of events – will you get to work on time? Will you be sitting in wet clothes the whole day? Is that coffee meeting you scheduled at an outside location, still going to take place?
Humans will always strive for stability
The scientific term for this fact is homeostasis. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica homeostasis is: "any self-regulating process by which biological systems tend to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are optimal for survival...The stability attained is actually a dynamic equilibrium, in which continuous change occurs yet relatively uniform conditions prevail."
What this means in human terms, the way I see it, is even at one's lowest point – let's say you are dealing with death, divorce, disease, or anything that pushes your sensory triggers to the max: the body and the mind, are busy trying to process and to push you to find a place to accept and move on. These processes usually take time. They always require support from one's personal circles, and yes, sometimes they require professional intervention. Incidentally, in my first novel, I wrote about a character who was struggling with her need for equilibrium, this need being so strong that she found it extremely difficult to leave her comfort zone. Her fear of change really prevented her from trying new things...I am sure for some that this is a familiar tale...
Just when you think you are done you are not
This kind of takes us full circle, but it is important to note anyway. I don't know who made up the following quote, I would love to give them credit: "change is not a destination it is a journey." No matter whether the change that you are personally undergoing is planned or as a result of some sort of disruption, you can work towards adaptation, acceptance and moving on. However, there are no goal posts or finish line. The process is in the journey, and even as you are running what seems to be the final mile, the next change is already upon you. Let's consider pregnancy for a minute. You have just got used to the idea that you are growing a human. Then you adapt to the physiological changes of your body to the point that you are ripe for birth, but the journey doesn't end there, because the pregnancy is just a corridor to the real change, and that is a newborn baby in your life. Like I said, just when you think you are done, you are not...
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