You May Not Be Able to Manage Change - But You Can Manage Your Response to It

Your response (reaction?) to change is conditioned by your entire life experience...the family you come from, your age, education, marital status, attitudes about work and about yourself. From this it follows that everyone has a unique way of perceiving and handling change. Here's an opportunity to see what your particular situation may be.

The exercise that follows is called "Life Cycle Changes". The questions you'll be answering are all about what makes you unique. There are five areas. Take a couple of minutes to write out the first answers that occur to you. Be very brief, because you may want to come back to this later and add to it or revise it.

1. Self-History. What losses, traumas and other changes have you experienced throughout your life?

2. Relationship History. What have you faced as a member of a family, work team, social group, religious organization?

3. Sex/Gender Issues. What reactions or responses to change do you sense are based upon your masculinity or femininity?

4. Ethnicity Influences. What racial or ethnic consequences does change produce for you, if any?

5. Maturity Level. Where are you in your life cycle ? youth, young adult, adult, mature adult, senior citizen ? and how does change affect your outlook on your age, maturity, ideas about mortality and so forth?

Now that you have these responses recorded, you can begin to see what bottlenecks you may be encountering as change occurs ? or as you attempt to initiate change from within. To illustrate this, let's look at an actual case...your responses to a real transition in your personal past. Complete the next exercise, called "Your Personal Response to Change" by answering the six questions that follow this introductory paragraph: Looking back over your life you'll notice that there have been a number of significant changes - we call them "transitions" - for instance, from childhood at home to childhood at school, young person in high school to young person in college, student to worker, single person to coupled person?and so on.

Select a major transition you've gone through, then, on a piece of paper, write your answers to these questions:

1. What was the greatest difficulty you had to face?

2. How did you overcome this difficulty or fear?

3. When did you begin to feel that you would get through the change and feel OK?

4. What new things did you need to learn in order to handle and manage the change?

As you can see, you've already handled this and other major transitions, and there were specific things you needed to do, to know, to have, to understand and to act upon. The good news, then, is that you can do this again, anytime, in any situation.

Copyright 2002, 2005 Optimum Performance Associates/Paul McNeese.

Paul McNeese is CEO of Optimum Performance Associates, a consulting firm specializing in transitional and transformational change for individuals and institutions through publication. His publishing company, OPA Publishing, is an advocacy for self-publishing authors of informational, instructional, inspirational and insightful nonfiction.

Email: pmcneese@opapublishing.com
Websites: http://www.opapublishing.com and http://www.opapresents.com

---

Beliefs

Do you realize that what we believe about ourselves, affects... Read More

Anamchara - Beyond Positive Thinking

One of the most well known books ever written on... Read More

Discover The 8 Steps To A Mountain Moving Faith

" If you have faith as a grain of musterd... Read More

The Art of Jiu-Jitsu

Using an opponent's force against them is the fundamental teaching... Read More

Taking Responsibility for Yourself

This week I happened to catch a few minutes of... Read More

Quick Fixes: Happiness In A Bottle

This is the age of the Quick Fix - the... Read More

Positive Thought

The power of positive thoughts to affect one's experience of... Read More

How to Get Rid of Frustration and Self-Pity

I've yet to meet the person who never struggles with... Read More

Heres Your Calm During The Storm Of Discouragement

Have you ever known someone like this? "A person who... Read More

Feeling Grouchy? Heres What to Do

I woke up this morning feeling sour.No. That's an understatement.... Read More

Self Confidence and the Way You Use Your Words

The way we use language can have a huge impact... Read More

Improve Your Self Confidence

Knowing yourself is the foundation of self-esteem, self confidence and... Read More

How To Stay Positive In spite of The Negativity Around You

I'm often asked how it is that I stay so... Read More

Words, Ignorance, And Casper The Friendly Ghost!

Words, Ignorance, and Casper The Friendly Ghost!Do your best to... Read More

I Know I Can, I Know I Can

I'm sure most of you remember the children's book about... Read More

Positive Mind, Successful Life

It took me a long time to realise the benefits... Read More

Why Do Some Affirmations *Work* - and Others Dont?

By definition,an affirmation is a statement repeated time and again... Read More

Is ADD Getting You Down? 6 Tips to Sharpen Your Celebrating Skills

Celebrating is a skill that adults with ADD (Attention Deficit... Read More

Short Cut to Self-Confidence: Say Yes to You!

You are the only one that can give confidence to... Read More

Shifting Your Paradigm

What is a paradigm? In my own words, a paradigm... Read More

Deep Doghouse Communication for Angry Men

Many times when an angry or rageful man comes into... Read More

Get Out of Jail Free: How to Identify Unconscious Beliefs

Know thyself.These words were inscribed in the vestibule of the... Read More

What You Can Do As A Non-Raging Mate To Either Fix The Relationship Or Forget It

(The following is an actual email conversation between Newton Hightower,... Read More

Life Changing Attitude

Do you really believe that there is anything in this... Read More

Taking Yourself Too Seriously? - Suggestions for Reclaiming Your Perspective

"We can change our circumstances by a mere change of... Read More

Scented, Spiritual Waters

Water is an important tool for magic rituals in many... Read More

Spring Into Enchantment

Who can control a smile sneaking across your face as... Read More

Universal Thought System/Forgiveness#2

Clear Conflict with Forgiveness:Forgiveness is the means to solve all... Read More

Gain Confidence By Avoiding The Trap Past Experiences Can Give You In Life

One of the biggest potential problems we face with every... Read More

Personal Assignments for Great Self-Esteem

Do you wish you had high self-confidence? Some of us... Read More

Mindfulness and Money: Monkeying Around

Kasia is a talented landscape designer who speaks several languages,... Read More

Lifes Curveballs

Do you realize how good you have it? Yes, everyone... Read More

Does Life Really Stink?

One of my class fellows was really tensed, when asked... Read More