Bill Riddell

The Fear of Change

We are all seduced by the idea of change. In theory at least – it sounds nice.

We like to read stories about people who have completed radical changes/achieved great feats and see reports about them on the news.

Many of us deep down have a lot of dreams to make radical life changes – to take the road less traveled, to quit your job and write a book, to get serious about your health and banish obesity. The list goes on.

Yet we resist change every day.

We resist it at work. Even if it could result in a pay rise from increased revenue the change may bring about, people are incredibly reluctant to take the leap. This is so significant there is even an entire branch of business practice and communications devoted to convincing employees to change to new business practices.

We resist it at home. We know we shouldn’t grab that take away or fast food. Deep down we want to kick the habit, get healthy and look great.

But change is scary. We aren’t sure which healthy foods to eat, fear we might not find any that we like, that it will cost more money and much more. All these thoughts rush through our heads and it just seems too hard.

We are so quick to consider the potential downsides and the chance of failure that we totally neglect the glaringly obvious potential rewards. Happiness, better health, greater wealth, even a longer and more enjoyable life.

People will put up with horrendous conditions rather than ‘risk’ changing for the better.

To me one of the most shining examples is the former Soviet Union. At the time of the USSR’s collapse so many of the downtrodden people clung to the communist ideals and held out hope that the Soviet’s reign would continue.

Life under communism, no matter how bad and depressing, had become comfortable to many of the people and as it crumbled around them they desperately feared change.

Instead of considering and longing for the possibility of a better way of life, the restoration of their homelands, history and the return of freedoms taken from them, they instead wanted things to stay the same.

Another crazy example is this story fresh from Romania. A village has re-elected their mayor, despite the fact he passed away as voting began. Perfect, if the mayor is dead there is pretty well zero risk of change.

One of the incumbents supporters summed it up perfectly to local TV, “I know he died, but I don’t want change.”

It’s a safe bet the mayors opponent, apparently alive and at least somewhat healthy, would have been 100% more effective. Sure it is possible he may have introduced change that could adversely affect some people, however he may also have been the greatest mayor that village has ever had. The fear of change means they may never know.

That same fear is holding you back. It could be from improving your health, going sky diving like you have always dreamed or taking a year off from from work to travel the world.

I wont pretend to be a saint. Fear has held me back from many things in the past, and even a few things to this day that I am overcoming.

Don’t let fear hold you back from what you trully want to achieve. Rise above it and make your dreams come true.

Do not live your life regreting the chances you did not take in the past and dreaming of changes you would like to take in the future (even though deep down you doubt you ever will). Instead get out there today and make a change.