4 Ways To Embrace Change For Personal Growth

Change is a natural part of life and it can bring about growth, new opportunities, and exciting adventures. However, change can also be uncomfortable, stressful, and difficult to cope with. It’s human nature to seek comfort and stability—something that change disrupts. Despite the challenges that come with change though, it's essential if we want to move forward in life. Embracing change can lead to many wonderful things including a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

This is why in today’s post, we want to look at four different ways we can welcome change in our lives instead of fighting it. In this way, we can embrace all the beautiful things ahead of us.

1. Cultivate an open mind.

We can start embracing change and the impact it has on our lives by being more open minded. When we have this kind of mindset, we have the ability to let go of any fears, insecurities, or resistance that we feel about change. Why? This is because we’re more receptive to new ideas, perspectives, and experiences instead. We become curious and are more than likely to welcome whatever change is ahead of us with the expectation that we will learn and grow in the process.

Being open minded also helps prevent us from rejecting anything that we feel is unfamiliar or different—something change definitely is in the beginning. From looking at just the unknown, it shifts our focus toward the possibilities and opportunities that have always been there for us to take advantage of. And then, as we become more willing to try new things, even take risks, it eases us out of our comfort zone.

It gets us ready to explore our full potential.

2. Look at both the positives and negatives in your life.

Part of accepting the fact that change is unavoidable is by taking a good look at our lives as a while. This means recognizing both the positives and the negatives. Are there habits, beliefs, and even people that we want to keep or take away from our lives? This can provide you with a clear picture of what kind of life you want to lead and have many years down the road so that you know the kind of changes needed to get there.

Positive things can include any of the following: the values you want to keep, relationships and beliefs that are healthy and good for you, as well as passions, hobbies and other habits that make you better everyday.

As for negative things, you can start with bad habits, any limiting beliefs that are holding you back, as well as unhealthy relationships that get you nowhere.

This also gives you the chance to initiate change in your life yourself!

Instead of waiting for it to come along, you’re the one who takes charge instead, identifying the exact type of change needed so you can reach the ideal life you want to have.

One way to have a more holistic view of your life, including its many positives and negatives, is through journaling. By allowing you to write unfiltered about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences, you get to look back and reread, see your life from a different perspective, and identify useful clues, patterns and behaviors that can help you get to know yourself more.

3. In the midst or aftermath of change, pause.

When an unexpected change comes along, our first instinct is to either act or react. As challenging as it is, what we want to do instead is pause as the changes unfold. Give yourself a few hours, a full day, or overnight to look at what’s happening. Maybe you need to look at things from a different perspective. Perhaps there’s something you don’t know about this change yet—a person you haven’t talked to, a fact that you haven’t discovered. Have you looked at the upsides and downsides of this change?

Anything that challenges the status quo of our life can put us in fight or flight mode, but with practice, we can learn to step back and simply pause. Assess the changes happening and then, from there, decide how you want to continue moving forward.

4. Listen to the perspective of the rest of the world.

One reason change can be daunting is because some of us look at the world through only one lens: our own. As a result, all change is scary and intimidating. That’s not surprising at all and limits what we know of life and how it’s lived by other people.

Of course, this is not to say you should always gather everyone else’s perspective or outlook every time you’re in the face of an incoming change. But when you can, keep your ears open and hear other people out, especially ones who have a different belief or opinion than you. These are the people who usually have something to say that you don’t know or have never thought of. Not only will you add to what you know, this also provides you with a new angle to look at certain things, which makes change less of a surprise.

Change is something you can welcome and embrace.

No matter the type of change you’re going through—or expect to experience—in life, the key is to accept it with open arms. Since resistance is futile, why give yourself a hard time?

What change in your life did you struggle with the most? How did you eventually find acceptance to be able to move on and forward? Share your story with us below—we’d love to hear from you!