Opportunities to Embrace Change
One of the only guarantees in life is that things will change. Although Benjamin Franklin said, “the only two sure things in life are death and taxes,” I think we are more guaranteed that things will change. When you look at how fast the world is currently shifting and changing, almost everywhere in all parts of my world I see change. One of the most obvious ones are changes as you grow, I always say that each stage of life has its blessings and its challenges. What if we learned to be grateful for the blessings that each stage brings and lean into the challenges that each stage brings as an opportunity to learn and grow.
I was listening to the Joe Rogan Podcast tonight where he had Russell Brand on, they were talking about how you basically become a different version of yourself as you grow and you are not the same ‘man’ as you were at certain times of your life. Then they brought up the analogy, ‘you can never step in the ‘same’ river twice because the next time either the river has changed or the person stepping in the river has changed.’ It is such a great analogy for looking at the abundance of change that we experience as human beings. Change is inevitable, so it is important to learn how to find opportunities to embrace change, even when change means new challenges or perceived obstacles.
I have a masters degree in Education which focused on Educational Technology. I went into my masters degree thinking that I would learn about cutting edge technology that would help me be a better teacher and empower the kids to be cutting edge learners. Here is the thing…every technology I learned or used in my masters degree is already obsolete. They were actually obsolete as I took the degree because technology is changing so quickly and it will increase even more as we begin to explore the capabilities of AI (Artificial Intelligence).
You could approach how fast things change as a set back and feel defeated by it. Or you could approach it with optimism and see how there are endless potentials based on how you choose to view change. When it comes to education and how fast I see technology changing and I see it as an opportunity. We have an opportunity like never before in history to be creators, critical thinkers and collaborators in ways that were never possible even 5 years ago. If you have a smart phone connected to the internet you have infinite learning potential and can learn about anything your heart desires. What I worry about with how fast these technologies are taking over our lives is: how do we learn to decipher so much information all of the time, how do we think critically about the content we consume. Are we using the technology to be conscious creators or passive consumers.
When we begin to deeply think about change we see around us it gives us an opportunity to embrace change and consciously navigate it rather than feeling helpless in our inability to control how things are changing.
This week I want you to think about areas in your life that are changing. How can you consciously embrace the abundance of change in your life? What areas do you need to just let go and allow the changes to flow and what areas do you need to think critically about and consciously guide how you show up in those areas of change. You have endless opportunities to embrace change if you choose to!
