Too Much Change?

Are you and the World tired of change?

The pace of change is speeding up. Is the world (and you) just tired?

I am doing some work on changing people’s basic health habits. I watched this video from @Nick Crocker on forming and habits

There is a great story and point about the fact that your ability to change is an exhaustible resource. i.e. it runs out. So if you are trying to start flossing, while you’re trying to go vegetarian, while trying to stop reading too many blogs, while trying to change the way you drive then you will probably fail at some and maybe all of them. Not because you don’t want to and not because you can’t, but just because you’re too tired.

I love change. I’m driven by it. I’ll change something working in order to have variance. Sometimes good, not always. “If it ain’t broke… [crack] well, ok, now it’s broken”

But most people aren’t driven by change. Many hate it, avoid it and fight against it. This makes it hard for them to change themselves. And maybe that’s ok if they don’t want to, but many do. Quit smoking, be healthy, have good relationships.

But, what about the world? And here is my controversial idea.

There is so much change happening everywhere. Climate change, cultural change, democracy change, gender in society (both female/male and LGBTQ) change, technological change, workplace change (AI/robots), global change (trade, off shore work) and more.

And add Covid change on top of this. Massive change, massive uncertainty, really fast.

My view is the vast majority of the change is going to be positive. Except Covid of course, though I think there is some silver linings here too with how it has forced some other things to change such as appreciation of science, research, cleanliness, working from home, less travel for work, etc.

But despite them being positive, there is just a lot of them. Younger generations are being raised on change and may be able to handle more of it. But I think older generations aren’t. Working for a single company was possible for retirees. Now working in a single career is not likely.

So maybe part of the push back is not against the change but it’s just physically tired from so much change.

I don’t want this to be a cop out. “Oh, so it’s fine not to look after the environment because there is too much change tiring me out???” Not at all.

This for me is an awareness that, like being told that you should floss, just the facts and awareness is not enough. You still need to actually do the work to change and you have to be patient. You need both determination and patience.

So, my big question is, how do we get fitter for change? And how do we manage the change to be less tiring. Let’s not drop our goals. Let’s raise them. And let’s raise our energy and smarts on changing the best way.