Sure, change can be exciting and fun...but change can also be terrifying. The kind of change we are often afraid of is the kind of change that hasn't even happened yet. And it isn't always the kind of change that doesn't actually involve bad things or unhappy things. Instead, it's the kind of change that could happen if we allowed it to.
For a moment, think about the kinds of things in your health you've always wished you could achieve, or challenges you've always wanted to overcome. Whether it's overcoming an addition to smoking, being someone who makes the gym an absolute priority every day, or working through emotional overeating.
To actually accomplish these goals, you will change. You will be a different person by the time you have overcome those hurtles, obstacles and challenges. And while those changes seem like obviously positive things, embracing the possibility of that change is overwhelming.
Or maybe you're changing how you think and feel about a part of your life. If I had spent the past 15 years of my life in a strong pattern of disliking myself, putting myself down, feeling like a loser, ugly, and unworthy of anything good...then changing into a version of myself that is proud, confident, happy and beautiful is a scary change. Terrifying.
Even in unhappiness, we can get really cozy there. If you've been there long enough, you'll learn to like it, to seek it, to stay in it because it's familiar. You know what it's like there. It's easy to keep doing what you've always been doing, even if it doesn't really make you happy.
Change is scary.
Now imagine if you removed the fear-factor. Removed the element of, "Oh my gosh, I don't know who I'd be if were to change into the person I've always dreamed of being!"
"I don't know what it would be like."
The unknown! The idea of changing into something you haven't been before, or something you've never felt before, or a way of thinking you've never thought before...that can be terrifying.
It is all too common to be afraid of what we don't know; even if might obviously lead to happiness, health, success and pride.
If the fear didn't matter, if there was no risk of failure, what would you go after? What would you aim to achieve? Who would you become? What kind of person would you create yourself to be?
As you sit at your desk, thinking about the parts of your life and yourself that you've always wanted to change, to improve, to develop and strengthen, ask yourself, "How long have I been thinking about this?"
And how much longer are you going to wait before you begin to take action?
