The Winds of Change

Tell me

Do you want change? Do you like and embrace change? Do you dislike change? Do you fear change? Or are you one of those who just isn’t bothered about change?

There are three types of change

Number one, change we want and have planned and is under our control, like changing jobs, moving house, or engaging with a new partner.

Number two, change thrust upon us by everyday circumstances. We can manage it but would prefer if it hadn’t happened because it’s not under our control and not something we asked for.

Number three is ‘change for change sake’ when we say ‘anything’ would be better than ‘this’! This form of change is really dangerous, because you don’t know or care what you’re going to get – just like Forrest Gump’s ‘box of chocolates’ – but it may turn out to be like one of the weird chocolate flavours in Harry Potter.

it happened in the 1930s in Germany. It happened in Russia in 1917. It is happening here and now in the UK – for the second time in the last 10 years.

Back in the 20th century we had big change thrust upon us several times. These events, and many from the late forties onwards were caused directly by ‘change for change sake’ thinking– the blind assumption any change would be somehow ‘better’ than the status quo of the time.

On 3^rd February 1960, Harold Macmillan made a speech to the South African Parliament against their policy of apartheid, He said “The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”

The thing is change is continuous. Everything in the universe is energy and energy is constantly in motion, in vibration, in a state of change.

The chair you’re sitting on is in motion. Each component of the chair, and every component of your body is vibrating at a particular frequency, wavelength and amplitude. It’s how the universe works.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed and the transformation, the change, goes on all the time

You and I, think of and perceive change on the conscious level. We’re largely unaware of all the other changes going on but our subconscious mind is aware and is taking it into account.

You and I decide, from time to time to give up our individual control. We’re trained to do it – we let others change or interrupt our lives for us. We give them permission or even ask them to do it!

We give in – and everyone has done this at some time or other, to the changes other people want. Whether the changes are thrust upon us, or we’ve ‘voted’ for them is beside the point. When someone else makes the change for us, our life is no longer under our own control.

What can we do about this?

The first thing is to be very clear, really clear, about who and what we want, really want, to be, do and have. You and I must be clear about two things – what we want to stop or get away from and what we want to start or move towards, and which of these is our primary motivator.

Second, we must really, really, believe we can achieve this desired state.

Third, to make it happen, to make our personal enterprise come into being, you and I need to be aware, fully aware, of what’s going on around us. It’s all about focus, about boundaries we set ourselves, about the essentials and non essentials, and about saying ‘no’ to many of the demands and expectations placed upon us by others who feel they need us to facilitate their ambitions rather than working on it themselves.

We notice what we’re noticing, we become aware of what we are aware – sounds odd but once we can do this all the time it becomes much easier to manage and control the winds of change blowing around us and to focus on our own, type one, controlled and chosen changes.

All his sounds simple, and it is, but many people have difficulty with it which is where coaching and mentoring come into play.