Change makes many of us uncomfortable especially when we are comfortable but life has a way of shaking things up and rearranging your entire world that knocks you upside the head making you re-evaluate your very existence.
I say this from the many moments in my life from childhood to this day that has made change and I best friends. Where I have learned not to fear and fight change but to embrace and welcome it as oftentimes it comes to elevate and teach you something new.
When the pressure is on and you have tried every which way you know how to solve a problem and nothing is working all of a sudden your mind starts working in ways you never thought possible. You are now thinking outside the box, you are coming up with ideas you never thought you had and abilities you would have laughed at a few years before.
This is what change can do, now let me not lie change is difficult initially especially if you are having to adapt to a new way of living or doing things and I think it’s in this period that you must find the courage to fight the temptation of reverting back to the old ways. Unless of course the circumstances give you no choice but to move forward and, in that case, you must find the courage to continue. Either way, you can find the strength by understanding that things will get easier with time because you would have learned what is necessary to adapt to your new life thus making it your norm.
Story time
Rewinding to my earlier point about my own moments of change a major turning point in my life happened when I was 10 years old. I was born and raised in Uganda and up until I was brought to the UK, Uganda was all I knew. So being brought to a new and unfamiliar country with a completely different way of living and doing things was hard enough to then be abandoned at a social service office at closing time on a Friday afternoon with now unfamiliar faces took the biscuit.
As you can imagine my whole world turned upside down inside out. I was confused but I didn’t cry as I watched a social worker frantically make calls trying to find a foster carer that could take me for the weekend. As young as I was when this took place, I quickly accepted that this was going to be my life now and had to find the courage to move forward and through all the challenges that would come with this change.
I had no other options and you know thinking about it now it was probably my acceptance of this change that helped me navigate its difficulties because had I fought against it I don’t know if I would have been here telling you this story. With time this fundamental change in my life got easier as I learned what was necessary to adapt to my new way of life in the UK. The journey wasn’t easy but with every step I took forward, it got easier that now going back to Uganda is foreign.
Lesson
The moral of the story is whatever difficult change you are facing or life decides to throw your way:
- Accept it – accepting the challenge puts your mind in solution mode which helps you navigate the problem better.
- Take it one step at a time – don’t overwhelm yourself with worry about all the things that are or will go wrong because most of the time those things don’t happen. Don’t be too hard on yourself either or dwell in self-pity, just go with the flow.
- It will become easier – like any new skill you learn in life it’s difficult at first but becomes normal when you continue to use it; so will you situation if you continue going forward.
With that said I’ll leave you with this:
“Don’t be afraid of change rather accept it and all its challenges because it’s through it that you become a better version of yourself, a higher spec so to speak.”
