Change Is Good

The other day I dropped my favorite teacup, rendering it no longer a safe or viable receptacle for my daily consumption of my favorite beverage. To say that I was a tad upset is an understatement. I have had that green cup for years, thought of it as kind of a good luck charm, a talisman, if you will; it is even prominently displayed on this blog and in several of the videos on my video site. For one awful moment I thought: What am I going to do without my special mug? And then I shook my head and realized how ridiculous I sounded. Eventually I got over my dismay and as I often do, sat down and gave my little ordeal some additional thought. My conclusion was that change, even when it is thrust upon us or may seem bad or ill-timed, is a good thing.

“Things don’t change, we change.”~ Henry David Thoreau

But for many people, the prospect of change, especially major change, can seem daunting, downright scary, at times. This is a perfectly natural reaction. Why? Because most of us do not like being taken out of our comfort zones. We prefer the mundane routine to the new super new CHANGE because our routine is a familiar friend, something that while far from perfect is at least not full of surprises and new challenges. This is okay, unless your desire to do more with yourself and your life.

“If you are not changing, you are not living.” ~ Mike Foster

Unless we are testing ourselves, trying new things, removing that comfortable routine from our lives, we will never see our greater potential. The best bosses or managers or supervisors or leaders will often place their charges in challenging predicaments just to see how they react, to deem if they have what it takes to be all that they can be. Again, this is not a pleasant or even enjoyable exercise, but it is one that is necessary for self-growth, personal development, and living one’s life to its fullest.

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” ~ William Shakespeare

The biggest tragedy is not to have failed or shunned change, but to never have tried. What if by playing it safe you missed out on your true calling in life? Or passed on your potential soul-mate? Change, for the better, is a good thing. But what about change that you are not ready for, or change that is forced upon you? I am one of those lemonade out of lemons guys, someone who is always viewing the glass as half-full. If change comes and you look at it in a negative light I guarantee that the results will be bad. The good news is that while we may not be able to control the changes headed our way, we can control how we deal with them. In this video, I talk about how I dealt with the loss of my special teacup and how I like to deal with other types of changes:

Change Is Good



You can’t turn on the TV these days without seeing and hearing about how messed up the world is: hunger, war, terrorism, obesity, poverty, global warming, genocide, and just plain uncontrollable anger. How can we change the world when the world’s problems seem so vast? The answer is to embrace change and change yourself, to look in the mirror and honestly assess your own individual problems and issues and areas of improvement. While we may not be able to overcome the seemingly insurmountable problems facing the world, by taking important steps in improving self, the world’s issues will be reduced by one.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no on thinks of changing himself.” ~ Tolstoy

One of the biggest fears facing many people is the fear of failure. When facing big life changes or just mini-changes that upset the balance of your world, fear of falling flat on your face, of making mistakes, of failure, is natural. The good news: Failure is okay! Why? Because when we fail we are at least trying, and from that effort comes results, feedback from which we can learn, improve, excel.

FAILING = FEEDBACK!

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ~ Albert Einstein

The other day I thought that my luck had changed in a negative way when I dropped my favorite teacup and was faced with an unexpected change. Instead, I discovered that change, unexpected or planned, big or small, is a good thing. It all depends on how you embrace it.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike