I’m getting tired of hearing “it’s never going to be the same” as if the status quo and the way we’ve always done things has never changed in our lifetimes. It’s changed constantly. It would’ve changed significantly even if there had not been a pandemic.
"I wish there was a way to know you're in "the good old days", before you've actually left them." –Andy Bernard, @theofficenbc pic.twitter.com/0e9mHlWdCY — Eric Swenson (@EricWSwenson) May 10, 2020
People fear change because it moves us from the known to the unknown. But change has happened consistently since time began, and guess what: it’s gonna change again.
Remember flying before 9/11? The check-in and security process changed after that, didn’t it. We got used to it, and now it’s normalized.
Remember television prior to streaming? Prior to cable? When there were only 13 channels? Or maybe you remember (like I do) when there was black-and-white only and no remote control?
Are you doing the same work you did 5 years ago? Using the same tools, communication devices? What about the people who work with you? Any of them leave in the past 5 or 10 years?
Point is, nothing is ever going to be the same again because nothing is now the same as it was before. What makes the human species (and much of nature) unique is that we adopt to change. Doesn’t mean we have to particularly like it, but we adopt.
So if you’re scared of the fact that it’s never going to be the same, get over yourself. Your success in life or school or your chosen profession is not based on whether or not there is change, but how you adopt to it. How well you adopt, how easy it is for you adopt, and what your attitude about the new world is.
The great Dan Sullivan, “You have no responsibility for what’s happening in the outside world, but you have 100% responsibility for how you respond to it.”
It’s OK to look to the past and remember what was, but don’t live there. There is only now, and what will be.
Comments