CHANGE

How do YOU cope? Asks Life & Business Coach Eric Gilston…

No, we are not talking about what you get in your hand when you pass over a £10 note at a Supermarket.

However, this is a most appropriate time to be reading this article, as the recent referendum has put each and every one of us in the position of not knowing just what change is going to take place in our lives. Whatever it is though, we will have to manage it.

So this article is focusing on how we cope with changing jobs, changing relationships, etc. For some people, they just take it in their stride, while for others it is the end of the world.

Compared to when I was growing up, today is all about Change. In the context of a job, the word ‘redundancy’ is now commonplace. Like cancer, it is my view that we have either personally experienced redundancy or we know someone who has had to face redundancy?

What upsets me is that when it occurs to someone, they go around saying that ‘they have been made redundant’. This statement unfortunately makes it very personal, and people then feel that it affects their pride? The reality is that ”˜the job was made redundant’, and as I have said in previous articles, ‘Change begins with language’.

So my recommendation to anyone who is facing redundancy or knows someone in that position, then start using the phrase ‘my job was made redundant’. Coping with this inevitable change in life will then become easier.

I remember when my son was changing jobs a few years ago, and having started the new job, he was making comparisons in the first week with his previous job. Quite obviously, to me at least, the new job did not match up to the previous one. Is it really a fair comparison to look at what you experienced over two years with what you have experienced over two days? To cope with this sort of change, you need to give it a fair amount of time before you make a true comparison. After all, we know that to change habits, it takes 21 days.

A few years ago I was coaching some staff at a college, and on departing, I picked up the college brochure. Imagine my reaction when I was reading about some Case Studies, and read about a woman who had received a laptop for her 90th birthday, and needed help in learning how to use it. She had gone to the college to sign up for an IT course so that she could learn how to keep in touch with her friends. She also quoted, “My elderly friends have always been afraid to use computers but now I want to help teach them”.

What a great example to all of us about how to cope with change and today’s massive changes in technology. We all have a choice to either use this as an excuse not to move forward or we can embrace change.

So, is Change a Life Skill? On its own, maybe not, but Managing Change, in my view, most definitely.

Going back to that topic of redundancy, you have that choice of letting it consume you, or seeing it as a great opportunity to make that change in life that without redundancy you might never have made. It’s your choice.

Albert Einstein once said, “The only way to predict the future is to create it”. This is certainly worth a thought. Why wait for change to happen to you? Why not start to think about where you would like to be in say five years’ time – job, home, location, car, etc.? You will then be able to cope with change as you will have created that change. Come on, go for it.

If you would like to know more about Managing Change, then please feel free to contact me at eric@coachandcourses.com