Metathesiophobia - The Fear of Change
Ross Findon @ Unsplash
Change is something that is inevitable, it happens every day.
Our minds, bodies and lives are constantly changing around us and this can easily become quite daunting. Due to all of these constant changes, the bigger shifts in our lives - leaving that job you hate, moving to that dream house or even switching up your diet - can become things that we fear. In fact, a nationwide study into British lifestyles has revealed that more than half of Brits hate change and 27% of them are actually panicked by it.
This statistic really shocked me, change is something that should be embraced, not feared. A happy life can’t be spent hiding from the inevitable. I can just picture all of the unhappy people working jobs that they can't stand just because they are scared of what ‘could’ or ‘may’ happen.
Now, the fear of change actually comes down to mindset. If we take a proper look at a fixed mindset, it's always the same excuses being thrown around ‘Oh, I’ve already tried that’ ‘It will never work’ ‘There's no point’.... I have met so many people that struggle with this that I could list these excuses forever, but that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about how to actually overcome this fear or change.
We all know that this isn't something you can just switch off, it's something that you need to work on over time. Things like determination, drive and passion all can help to outweigh that feeling of fear. You also need to understand that having a fixed mindset, having that fear of change, actually really limits what you can achieve in life. Instead of running through every worst possible scenario in your head, you need to step back and ask yourself, what is the best that can happen?
Fear of change in your organisation can have a drastic effect on operations and morale. It can inhibit our ability to embrace the new and better and cause employees to feel anxious and unhappy at work. The fear of change also spreads like a pandemic so it is better to tackle it early on, changing at the wrong time can also have a drastic effect on your organisation. Blockbuster, Blackberry and Beales being perfect examples of that (Rest In Peace). You always need to change on the way up, not the way down - as this may already be too late.
If you or your team are struggling to cope with change, get in touch to find out how we can help your team!
