Keep Up with Changes
As we grow older, we become more set in our ways, but the world around us changes at faster and faster speeds. How do we keep up with these changes?
Contents
Steps
Staying in touch with change
- Keep informed. If you don't keep informed, you will surely be lost in the myriad of changes happening around you. Living to watch Seinfeld reruns on late night television isn't going to cut it, people.
- Read a newspaper or news magazine, or read current events blogs and website content to learn about what is going on in the world.
- Get out into your community. Listen to other people's ideas about what is happening.
- Take trips to places where change may be occurring if you are able. Your local government seat, government meetings, or even college campus public lectures are places to learn about change.
- Be aware of natural changes as well. Watch weather patterns and seasonal changes so you are aware of your immediate environment.
Getting involved with changes
- Be vocal about changes you support or oppose. You cannot complain about change if you haven't taken part in the process.
- Be a good citizen and get out and vote. Government is often blamed for changes that negatively impact people, and voting is one way to encourage the government to act in the interests of its citizenry.
- Support groups that are like-minded and increase your footprint in the arena of change. By combining resources and voices, your efforts are amplified.
- Be proactive when changes are afoot. Learn about the issues involved in changes, and offer suggestions to mediate problems or improve strategies for dealing with change. People may listen if you offer an alternative, but if none are offered, they may assume there isn't a choice.
Looking for ways to escape change
- Move to another location if changes are infringing on your lifestyle or freedoms. You may not be able to escape change completely, but if a political action or demographic alteration is affecting change you cannot deal with, move somewhere else.
- Insulate yourself from changes you cannot avoid or deal with. Are gangs moving into your neighborhood? Build a privacy fence, shutter your windows, or use other tactics to fend off their effects. Obviously, this is an over-the-top example for most of us, but it is a situation which has overtaken some communities.
- Be prepared for change if it appears inevitable. Suppose you know you will suffer a loss of employment or a reduction in hours or wages. You may be able to save up some cash or reduce your debt in preparation for those changes.
- Learn the skills or develop the capacities that can help you to be more adaptable.
- Be flexible when addressing changes. Developing some capabilities can make you open-minded, non-attached, accepting, courageous, curious, and willing for changes. People often fight doggedly against change, only to realize the change was for the better after the fact. Think about the reaction to the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's in the U.S.. No one would want to go back to those times, but many people fought passionately against them at the time.
- When we look at any change with this perspective, we can accept it, deal with our feelings towards it, find something positive to look forward to, and move ahead courageously.
Tips
- Be prepared for changes rather than responding to them after the fact.
- Let your feelings be known when changes seem eminent.
Warnings
- Change is, in fact, inevitable. Be prepared as best you can be.
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References
- [v161308_b01]. 20 September 2021.
- [v161308_b01]. 20 September 2021.
- [v161308_b01]. 20 September 2021.
