At work, at home, and online, it’s almost impossible to avoid the word change.
Everything is shifting and changing faster, more often, and with less margin for error. Change is no longer an occasional disruption. It’s the environment. And yet we resist it, avoid it, or quietly try to shape it so that very little actually changes at all. We don’t resist it because we are stubborn. We resist because change is hard.
When life is currently good, change can feel like a threat.
This part rarely gets acknowledged. Most people reading this have a nice life.
They’ve built a life that works, relationships, routines, success, comfort.
And that’s exactly why change can feel painful. Change requires giving up on what is familiar. Change disrupts patterns that once served us. It asks us to loosen our grip on something that isn’t entirely broken; it is just no longer aligned.
Change is not a four-letter word. But it does challenge our sense of safety and identity.
There are an endless number of programs that teach how to manage change.
For some people, they work. For others, they don’t. And even when they do work, they almost always require reinforcement, reminders, accountability, and structure just to keep the change alive.
Which raises a quieter question: What if the real issue isn’t change itself… but how we relate to it?
Can awareness be a solution to effectively managing and creating change?
For anyone engaged in self-insight or personal growth, the word awareness shows up everywhere.
And for good reason. If you are unaware of what is happening inside of you, change is not possible. Awareness is the key step to engaging change.
Several years ago I wrote, “Life is a never-ending series of temporary events”. This phrase highlights the continuous need to be aware of our choices. Awareness is not something you employ occasionally or when you are sitting at the beach in meditation.
Change isn’t optional. It’s unavoidable. And if it is unavoidable, attempting to ignore or resist it, results in a life that is very frustrating at the least.
And if you’re living a fully engaged life of significance, you already know how to be aware of the need for change, reactively respond to it and most wonderfully how to generate change that adds to your enjoyment of life.
When you are ready there two simple ways to start to elevate your ability to be aware in that temporary event, especially if it is an important event in your life.
Below are two simple practices that don’t involve a program or a system. Just two awareness practices that help you meet change as it actually shows up, in real life. These practices have changed my life and the lives of the people I have coached.
Practice 1. Notice your first reaction
Before you try to manage change, notice how you react to it. You don’t need to judge it.
You don’t need to fix it. Just notice it.
That pause, between stimulus and response is the Gap where awareness lives and where choice begins.
Practice 2. Pay attention to your energy
Your energy will tell you the truth long before your thinking does. The energy you are feeling will tell you if you resisting change or seeking to move forward with it. Recognizing what the energy you are feeling is enables you spot resistance.
And here is the most fascinating thing about awareness, the more aware you are, the more aware you become. You’ll find yourself saying How did I miss that before? How could I not be aware of….?
At work, at home, and online, it’s almost impossible to avoid the word change.
Everything is shifting and changing faster, more often, and with less margin for error. Change is no longer an occasional disruption. It’s the environment. And yet we resist it, avoid it, or quietly try to shape it so that very little actually changes at all. We don’t resist it because we are stubborn. We resist because change is hard.
When life is currently good, change can feel like a threat.
This part rarely gets acknowledged. Most people reading this have a nice life.
They’ve built a life that works, relationships, routines, success, comfort.
And that’s exactly why change can feel painful. Change requires giving up on what is familiar. Change disrupts patterns that once served us. It asks us to loosen our grip on something that isn’t entirely broken, it is just no longer aligned.
Change is not a four-letter word. But it does challenge our sense of safety and identity.
There are an endless number of programs that teach how to manage change.
For some people, they work. For others, they don’t. And even when they do work, they almost always require reinforcement, reminders, accountability, and structure just to keep the change alive.
Which raises a quieter question: What if the real issue isn’t change itself… but how we relate to it?
Can awareness be a solution to effectively managing and creating change?
For anyone engaged in self-insight or personal growth, the word awareness shows up everywhere.
And for good reason. If you are unaware of what is happening inside of you, change is not possible. Awareness is the key step to engaging change.
Several years ago I wrote, “Life is a never-ending series of temporary events”. This phrase highlights the continuous need to be aware of our choices. Awareness is not something you employ occasionally or when you are sitting at the beach in meditation.
Change isn’t optional. It’s unavoidable. And if it is unavoidable, attempting to ignore or resist it, results in a life that is very frustrating at the least.
And if you’re living a fully engaged life of significance, you already know how to be aware of the need for change, reactively respond to it and most wonderfully how to generate change that adds to your enjoyment of life.
When you are ready there two simple ways to start to elevate your ability to be aware in that temporary event, especially if it is an important event in your life.
Below are two simple practices that don’t involve a program or a system. Just two awareness practices that help you meet change as it actually shows up, in real life. These practices have changed my life and the lives of people I have coached.
Practice 1. Notice your first reaction
Before you try to manage change, notice how you react to it. You don’t need to judge it.
You don’t need to fix it. Just notice it.
That pause, between stimulus and response is the Gap where awareness lives and where choice begins.
Practice 2. Pay attention to your energy
Your energy will tell you the truth long before your thinking does. The energy you are feeling will tell you if you resisting change or seeking to move forward with it. Recognizing what the energy you are feeling is enables you spot resistance.
And here is the most fascinating thing about awareness, the more aware you are, the more aware you become. You’ll find yourself saying How did I miss that before? How could I not be aware of….?
You didn’t miss it. You just weren’t seeing the world through the lens you have now. Awareness changes the lens and once the lens changes, the world does too, again and again.
An engaged life is the ongoing unfolding of what was once unseen. Much like scientific discovery, one insight doesn’t end the journey, it opens the door to the next.
What we see next is always shaped by what we’ve just learned to see.
Choose what you want to see!
The real truth about change.
Change doesn’t happen because we try harder.
It happens when awareness gives us access to choice, moment by moment.
You don’t need permission. You don’t need to start over. You just need to notice what’s happening now. And then you can begin to decide how you choose to respond to the temporary event.
Change doesn’t ask for effort; it waits for awareness in the moment you’re about to choose. You didn’t miss it. You just weren’t seeing the world through the lens you have now. Awareness changes the lens and once the lens changes, the world does too, again and again.
An engaged life is the ongoing unfolding of what was once unseen. Much like scientific discovery, one insight doesn’t end the journey, it opens the door to the next.
What we see next is always shaped by what we’ve just learned to see.
Choose what you want to see!
The real truth about change
Change doesn’t happen because we try harder.
It happens when awareness gives us access to choice, moment by moment.
You don’t need permission. You don’t need to start over. You just need to notice what’s happening now. And then you can begin to decide how you choose to respond to the temporary event.
Change doesn’t ask for effort; it waits for awareness in the moment you’re about to choose.
Originally posted at Substack.com/home/post/p-186333862SubStack.com/home/post/p-184904098
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Having and living your mission is a driving force in Frank’s life and his coaching. His mission is “To experience the joy of living on purpose, sharing what he learns with other seekers. And for thirty years, he has been doing just that.
To learn more about how to live a life of significance, read “Practical Wisdom – The Seekers Guide to a Meaningful Life” by Frank Mallinder.
