It is our well-established patterns or habits that keep us where we are. I am most comfortable with the familiar, the tried and true. The XM radio in my car has, like most car radios, preset buttons. I have five and use only three. One button is for the 50s music— Elvis, Little Richard, The Platters— one button for Old Time Radio—The Lone Ranger, Dragnet, The Shadow, The Whistler, etc. The third button is for Southern Gospel.
Often people allow their habits and love for the familiar to become obstacles to change. We have a built-in system that resists change. Status quo is the watchword. Many will accept the way things are, even if they are bad, instead of venturing out. For these people the familiar is better than the unknown.
When confronted with the opportunity to change the natural reaction is to pull back; play it safe. This is an attempt to avoid or minimize the risk involved in a change. But hanging on to the old, while it may feel good, nevertheless creates additional stress and disillusionment.
Two Reason People Resist Change
People will do almost anything to avoid change and its consequences. The two most common reasons people resist a change are fear and apathy.
1. Fear. People in general fear change. The new is unfamiliar, daunting and therefore potentially precarious. There is a certain amount of security in the familiar and a lot of dread in the unknown. The situation is reminiscent of long ago, when map makers sketched dragons on maps as signs to sailors that they would be entering unknown territory at their own risk. Some sailors took this sign literally and were afraid to venture on. Others saw the dragons as signs of opportunity.
Professional change is almost always accompanied by fear over the loss of familiar boundaries, guidelines, and old values. Many people find it hard to leave the comfort and security of the past behind and enter unknown and untried territory. But as a new success mindset emerges, you must bring your life more in line with your new values and new paradigm.
2. Apathy. It is hard to appreciate the need to change when things are going good. But success can often be the kiss of death because it breeds apathy. Comfort can lead to stagnation.
In today’s world you have little chance of succeeding with yesterday’s No. 2 pencil, a package of carbon paper, or an IBM Selectric typewriter. Success often calls for change that can only be described as transformational. We can learn a lot about transformation and change by looking at insects. Consider the butterfly, formerly a caterpillar which undergoes metamorphosis in its chrysalis and emerges a glorious butterfly. The same creature, which enters the cocoon eventually, emerges, but the change is so remarkable that it cannot be recognized as the same.
The dictionary defines metamorphosis as “change of form or change of character.” It implies a major change—transformation— in form, nature, or function, usually for the better. In the final stage of biological metamorphosis the cocoon splits open and what emerges from the chrysalis is a fully formed adult butterfly, the final predestined form of the insect is realized.
In the seminal book, The Art of Living, the ancient Greek philosopher, Epictetus, advises that to discover our “predestined” state, we must clearly identify the kind of person we aspire to become. It is in the definiteness of the person we want to be that creates the power for metamorphosis and change. As a caterpillar is transformed inside its cocoon into a beautiful entity with wings, so people are changed from within by the power of positive thinking that is channeled into positive actions.
Someone once said, “There is nothing about a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” But then there is nothing about Harry S. Truman, a failure in business (haberdasher) and perennial political loser that would indicated that this farm boy from Independence, Missouri would become a U.S. President (ranked by most in the top 10 Presidents); As a “caterpillar” there was nothing to indicated Anna Mary Robertson Moses would, in her late 70’s, become the outstanding 20th Century folk artist, Grandma Moses. Her first paintings were given to family member. She later sold her works for $2 to $3. Later, her painting Sugaring Off sold for over $1-million. A beautifully example of a person undergoing metamorphosis is Helen Keller. She emerged from her cocoon of deafness and blindness to graduate cum laude from Radcliffe College and become a world famous author and lecturer—a classic “butterfly.”
An old axiom states successful people do those things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do. In my experience, the number one thing that unsuccessfully people dislike doing is undergoing change.
HOG THOUGHT: Only motivated people change. Change can be easy or difficult depending upon the motivation for change. A strong motivation for change creates a powerful force for a change. Change never happens until it is in the self-interest of the person involved.
HOG QUOTE: “There is nothing about a caterpillar that tells you it is going to be a butterfly.”
—unknown
HOG ACTION: Visualize what you would be—never underestimate your potential--and then take transformational steps to achieve your goal. In the process, you like the caterpillar, are changed.
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