How do you react to change?

Managing Your Mind
By: Gillian Butler, Ph. D and Tony Hope, M.D.

Recognizing that you can change

Different people respond to differently to pressures for change. I like this book because it gives so many examples on how to do things better, and become a better person for yourself, your family, and friends. The authors gave an example of five caricatures, which reflect specific patterns that people use when dealing with change, and/or conflict. They said, there are five caricatures which help us recognized certain elements about how we cope with change by developing a particular style of response. Each of these five styles has both advantages and disadvantages according to them. I am writing them down so you can analyze and see if you follow any of these patterns when reacting to change.

The five caricatures are:
1) The Sage - Is the person who seeks after knowledge and reads all about it.
2) The Traveler – They assumed that because we are constantly on the move, we must be going somewhere.
3) The Drifter – Retire from center stage, give up the struggle, and allow themselves to be carried wherever the current takes them “they go with the flow”.
4) The Ostrich – Has two characteristics: it hides its head in the sand and it has a powerful kick. Refusing to accept the inevitability of change can lead to both of these reactions
5) The Conductor of the Orchestra – They take control and set out to make things happen.

Think about these caricatures to think about whether to enlarge your repertoire of styles for making changes.

On this journey, we can use all that we know to give ourselves more options and better chances of helping ourselves to change.

CONDITIONS for CHANGE:

1. Understand the Present. If there are aspects of the present you do not like, you can start to plan how to change, but if you pretend these aspects do not exist, you will NEVER change.
2. Do NOT be burdened by the Past. The past cannot longer be changed. The past is an information bank from which you can learn. But it is not a web in which you are caught.
3. Accept the Uncertainty of the Future. An attitude of openness and confidence is needed for the future as well as for the past. The future is outside our control, and the unexpected is a continual possibility.