The Balance Beam From Success Builders Inc.

This is From The Balance Beam

[TheBalanceBeam] - Change Happens

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THE BALANCE BEAM
Ideas and Inspiration for Creating a Life that Works
Vol. 2 No. 8, April 14, 2000
Published by Success Builders, Inc.
http://www.SuccessBuildersInc.com
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"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened."
Lao-tzu
In this issue: CHANGE HAPPENS
====================================================================== Dear Friends:
How often does the word "change" come up in your life and in your business? What's that - you say you can't imagine a day without a discussion of change? Relax. You've got loads of company out there. In this issue of The Balance Beam, we consider the challenge of change, and ways to take it in stride.
If you want to check out earlier editions of The Balance Beam that you may have missed, you can easily retrieve them by clicking on http://www.successbuildersinc.com/newsletter.html and going to the Archives section. If you are not yet a regular subscriber to The Balance Beam, you can also enter your subscription information at this location.
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Today's Topic: CHANGE HAPPENS
I was reading an article about managing change the other day, and it occurred to me that this was probably at least the 500th piece I've read on the topic of "change" in the past ten years. The truth is, we've been dealing with the challenges of change since the beginning of time. Even the cave people had to cope with change. So why all the fuss over it in the past ten years or so?
Although change is a constant, it's probably fair to say that what has our heads spinning these days is not change per se, but the rate of change that we have to contend with. There are three key factors ratcheting up the pace of change in our lives. The first has to do with population growth. There are simply more people, with more ideas, more needs, and more competition for scarce resources.
The second factor has to do with the availability of information. Consider this: the amount of new information the typical person today has to absorb, process, and act upon, in a one week period of time, is greater than what our grandparents had to deal with throughout their entire adult lives! Information overload has become the norm.
Technology is the third factor. It has been said that over 90% of the world's technological advances have occurred since 1900, and the pace of this growth will skyrocket in the years to come. I'm reminded of this every time I find myself just getting a handle on my latest computer upgrade, when along comes another one to test my patience and tax my frazzled brain.
So what is it about change that makes it so stressful for us? After all, we know that it's good to grow and stretch, to try new things, to innovate and move boldly into the future.........then why does it make us crazy?
The real issue is that change implies loss; loss of comfort, predictability and competence. We fear becoming obsolete, yet we fear groping around in the dark as we transition to new ways of doing things. Futurist Marilyn Ferguson says, "It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear...It's like being between trapezes. It's like Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold onto."
One thing we can take comfort in is that fact that we're all in the same boat when it comes to finding ways to cope with the rate of change in our lives. No one is immune to this challenge. Here are some ideas for making your life a little bit easier as we go careening headfirst into the new millenium:
1. Acknowledge your fears and concerns regarding change. Putting them on the table will enable you to work through them. I guarantee you have plenty of company out there. Resist the need to be the stoic hero and keep everything inside. It will only give you heartburn.
2. Use "transition zones" as an opportunity to take stock of your life and your circumstances. Are your changes moving you in the direction you really want to go? Is it time to consider taking a different path, with respect to career, employer, lifestyle?
3. Reframe the way you look at the change you are experiencing. While it's true that all of us are barraged with information, technological changes and demands for adaptability, it's also true that we have more options and better tools than ever before. Generations ago, if your father was a bootmaker or a farmer, odds were, you would be a bootmaker or a farmer too. Today, we have choices galore, that can take us in professional and life directions that didn't even exist as recently as five years ago.
4. Take time-outs. Build in at least one fifteen minute break every day to be away from e-mail, phone, radios, newspapers, TV, and other people. We all need these "serenity breaks" to recharge.

5. Be selective. Put spam filters on your e-mail, let your answering machine screen your phone calls, turn off the summer re-runs. Choose the information you want to process, rather than simply absorbing everything that comes your way.
6. Embrace lifelong learning as an opportunity, rather than a need. As an example, consider the number of seniors and retirees who are becoming cyber-friendly because it's fun, not because it's required in their jobs. They're surfing the net, communicating with their grandchildren, and hanging out in chat rooms. Not bad, for a generation that relied on manual typewriters and party line phones to get their work done.
Charles Darwin said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." Buckle your seatbelt. It's a one-way ticket to the future.
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Words to live by:
"And nothing's quite as sure as change."
- John Phillips
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Upcoming Events:
For those of you in the Greenville, South Carolina area, I will be delivering the keynote presentation for the upcoming annual fundraiser auctionfest for the Association of Women in Communication. The topic: "How to Work Less and Make More of Your Life!" Join us on April 25, 2000 at the Palmetto Exposition Center in Greenville. For details, please visit www.awcgreenville.org, or reply to this email.