The Threat and Promise of Change

 For many people, the most frightening and personally threatening thing, as well as the most exhilarating and personally satisfying thing they can experience in life, is change. Change is motion—another definition of what it means to be alive. And since change is the process of being alive, it is both a threat and a promise.

The threat of change is rooted in fear and uncertainty: uncertainty that disorients causes acute anxiety, and raises disturbing questions about who you are. Therefore, the very notion of change in any quarter threatens to destabilize you, the way you see the world, and how you see yourself in that world. When the threat of change comes toward you, your only question is, “What will become of me?” However, there’s another side to the threat of change—its promise. When the promise of change comes toward you, your only question is, “What will I become?”

           

The promise of change is rooted in your unspoken desire to actually know, understand, and unabashedly celebrate who you are, your place and space in the world, and your mission and calling in life. Therefore, the promise of change is your opportunity to experience yourself, others, and the world at large first-hand and unmediated by the artificial boundaries and limitations of your upbringing, education, and training. The promise of change offers you a new lens through which you can perceive what is going on around you. It provides you with choices that you never imagined you had. It offers opportunities that have been hiding from you in plain sight and provides you with tools that can move you from where you are to where you’d really rather be.

The promise of change exploits your raw materials of fear and doubt, and from them manufactures products and services that provide you places of safety, areas of knowing, and vistas of clarity. The promise of change is the hope that propels you on the quest to live a full, meaningful, and productive life that you actually get a chance to enjoy.

Investing in your personal growth offers you the promise of positive change in your life, as well as the vehicle you can use to get to your destination of success. Don’t focus on the threat of change. Think about the promise of change that will come to your life as a result of seeing yourself as worthy of investment. Take the leap of faith and discover your own hidden potential.