Change is the process you take when you want to move from one situation to another. Change is what you take when you decide to quit smoking, switch job, or escape from a bad situation.
For the sake of simplicity in this post we’re only going to talk about positive changes, that is, changes that provide benefits to you.
Problem with change is that it’s sometimes risky, and you really wouldn’t want to take it because your current comfort zone looks already nice to you. Maybe you know that you should be doing something different, and what you need is a small kick to get things started. So how do you beat the fear of change?
How to beat the fear of change
Whatever you want to do, there are a few simple steps you can take to get rid of bad emotions and concentrate on the positive effects:
- See where you are now. Sometimes it’s useful to take a reality check and see where you are now. Is your health status really that nice that you don’t need to go to the gym? What about your work, or relationships?
- See where you want to go. Once you understand that your current situation can be improved, it’s time to think at how you want it to be. You might want to loose 10 pounds or move to another career. This is the phase where most people experience start to experience fear or regression.
- Understand failure. What if I tell you that I actually like to fail? Failure it’s not the opposite of success and I like it because when I fail, I know that what I was doing was not the best way, and guess what? I move to something else and I try until I succeed. If what I want to do is critical, I also think at how I could go back to the original situation. When I quit my job three years ago the first thing I thought was that I could easily have found another job if necessary.
- Cultivate a strong desire of change. I tend to look at change as something desirable. When I want to do something new that requires me to move out of my comfort zone, I see it as an opportunity to grow and learn a lesson. Even if everything would turn out to be bad, I know I’ll have learnt an invaluable lesson and experience. That’s how we actually grow by the way (remember when you was a child?).
- Connect with those who already did it. One of the best ways to get motivated at something new, is to connect with people who already did it before. Want to become vegan? There are millions of people who already are. Want to train for a marathon? You would be impressed at how many stories of people who completed a marathon you can find on the internet. You can always find someone who has already did what you want to do thanks to the internet, so don’t be afraid and try to connect with them, or at least get inspired by their stories.
- List all the benefits. Making a list of all the benefits you’ll gain once you have completed your change it’s another great exercise to develop your motivation. Focus only on the good things and let bad things for losers. Try to list as many advantages as possible.
- Get started. If you just get started doing what you want to do, you’ll eventually notice that it’s not that difficult to keep going. For example when I want to go out and run I don’t focus on the entire task, I simply put my shoes and get out the door, then it’s easy for me to continue my workout. Same thing goes for everything else, there’s always something that you can do right now regarding your goal.
BONUS: Unveil myths
Myths are often the reason why you don’t want to start something. For example a common myth is that 95% of business fails within five years. This is a common myth that many have today. I don’t know who was the first that said it, but I used to think it was true until I decided to validate it.
The first thing I noticed was that the major part of restaurants, stores, groceries, etc was already there five years ago, so I researched a bit and found that only 23% of business closes within five years. Notice that I said closes, not fails. Many of them are either sold or the boss retired. I can’t remember the actual source of this information, but here you can find an excellent explanation if you are interested.
With this example I want to prove that we are often afraid of something that is simply not true. I already wrote a detailed article about limiting beliefs, so I wont rehash everything again here, just keep in mind of your beliefs when you are afraid of trying something new.