Throughout the years we have move about in our own world, our minds focused on our own lives, our own problems and concerns from; What outfit we'd wear to that party Friday night? to How will we I pay the bills with a baby on the way and just one income?
The questions we ask ourselves can range enormously depending on the choices we make in life, choices that sometimes we take for granted only to look back on years into the future and think 'Wow, I wish I had taken that job offer..', 'I wonder what life would be like if I...' or even 'Was it really worth it?'
However, something we spend both the most and least time considering is quite simply change. Change is something that many of us think about on a fairly regular basis from small things like changing our clothes to bigger and more complex things like our lifestyle, who we spend time with and possibly the most daunting but thrilling, the choice to move from a place we have known all our lives thus far to another place, sometimes in a completely different country, where we know noone nor know much or anything about the little idiosyncrasies that make up the culture and history of the place we are moving to. While at the same time we usually fail with quite remarkable skill to fully contemplate how the change we are about to undergo might affect us.
Right now you might be reading this article and thinking to yourself 'What a load of trash!' and decide that your time may be better spent on reading or doing something else or you may take a moment to sit back to consider things, let the words you read here motivate you to consider the things you do and say, to really look at your life and say 'Wow, I never thought of it like that...' and continue reading on to soak in as much of what's written as you can. Right now the words might seem like a mess but if you approach them with a different mind set, if you approach anything with a different mindset, well, who knows what you might see.
In the medical world Metathesiophobia refers to the fear of change, although for some change comes as easy as breathing for good or ill but if we take a moment we might appreciate how difficult change really is for some. As I said earlier change can range from many things like:
- Cutting back on overdrinking/overeating
- Changing jobs
- Changing our address
- Changing our partners
- Trading our mode of transportation (something that is being considered more and more as we consider the impact the human race is having on our environment)
- Making the choice to 'come out' about our sexuality
No matter how we look at it we now have the chance like never before to get our backs up and make the decision to do something about something in our lives that we do not like. If our boss is abusive we can report their behavior to a higher authority, if we are feeling depressed we can choose to talk to a psychologist or councilor or take things on ourselves to become more involved in the things in life that make us happy, if we suspect our partners of foul play we can hire a private investigator, we can more than ever afford to pick and choose what kind of school we send our children to. There is nothing in our lives that we cannot alter in some way by changing a few small things, after all using hair clips to pull your hair back from your face while still letting it frame your features may just help that cute guy you work will notice what gorgeous eyes you have and get you that first date.
Unfortunately there are many factors that hinder us in making those changes we sorely need like:
- Lack of appropriate funding
- Lack of confidence in ourselves
- The belief that if our choices are 'wrong', we won't be able to do anything about it.
- Our current environment.
And whether we like it or not there are some things we cannot change and things that take more time than we want to spend to change. As technology advances we our patience dwindles, we want things to happen yesterday and when they don't we get angry and try to look for the quick and easy option like fad dieting or more worrying when some resort to theft as a means to pay the bills or worse, and more commonly heard of in teens, to get that new outfit or game that we have to save up for.
By using shoplifting as an example we can point out two easy options when we see something we want but cannot afford, we can either bide our time and save through an allowance or part time job or we can take it when we think noone is looking. Changing our thoughts on the situation help to make the decision and take us out of the posibility of being caught stealing and having a criminal record for life that any future employers may look at and deny you employment as a result.
If we look at our location we see choices, we can stay where we are or we can make the choice to work towards changing our location and thereby potentially changing our entire lifestyle or merely our odds of meeting that special someone that we were positive we would never meet. From personal experience my mother moved interstate and found my father and they have now been happily married for almost thirty years and my grandparents on my fathers side made the decision after the second world war to leave europe and search for a better life in another country with their three young children, where they knew noone and spoke very little of the native language yet managed to get by and make a good life for themselves rather than waiting and hoping that things in their region would settle down and work would be available once more.
Change can be daunting, it can keep us awake at night with worry but it can also excite, energize us and give us hope for something better, we just have to decide to take that first step and remember that in most things, the choice is ours and ours alone to make.
