Change Maven Musings: Choose Change

Real people. Real stories. Real change.

Choose change. Your routine, your job, your city, your habits, your mindset. Never sit and fester in frustration…complaining, worrying, or being negative will never help. Anything. At all. Ever. ~Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think

Many of us feel like change is done “to us.” We are the hapless, helpless victims on the receiving end and there’s nothing we can do about it. Accept it for the fuckery it is and do our best to move on, often taking lingering effects with us that we never fully resolve and prefer instead to break out on special occasions so we can blame, avoid, and remain in a state of inertia and inaction. Their fault, not ours.

Choose change.

If we don’t choose to change, we’re often choosing to stay for reasons we’re not being completely honest with ourselves about. Our daily routine is easy, our job pays the bills, our city is familiar, our habits reinforce our preferences, our mindsets keep us “safe” so we don’t have to venture too far into the risk and unknown of the future. We don’t choose change and we stay. That in itself can become a habit. Of course, sometimes, staying is the absolute right thing for us to do. Timing and circumstances play a large part in our motivation to take that unscripted step forward. And…staying is often the perceived safer bet because we’re too scared or anxious to consider anything else.

If you want to change, start small.

I had multiple, bedrock-shaking changes happen in my life a couple of years ago, so I’m the first to admit that the idea of choosing any more change is the last thing I want to do right now. I also know that change stops for no one, so maybe it’s the scale of change that needs to be different for me. Start small and see how it goes. Not everything has to be “transformational” or disruptive. Smaller, incremental changes can work, too. Take a step, see how it feels, keep going. Or not. Take a breath, a sip of water, have a snack. Try again. Or not. Maybe going to bed at a decent hour is the small change for that day. Or going for a walk to clear my head a bit. Or playing a new jazz album through my new, super-cool, pink speaker. Or not texting back that family member or friend right away to keep my energetic boundaries intact. Start small, see how it goes. See how I feel. Adjust, or not, as needed.

Choose change. If you want to change, start small. Choose change, again.