Welcome the Butterflies, Welcome Change

Does anyone really like change? Change is one of those things that takes away that of which we are comfortable. Change pushes us to grow and morph into something other than what we were before. Even if the cause of the change is a negative one, it brings about a growth process that has the potential to make us better, happier, or at the very least more experienced. So why do so many people hate change? Are they scared of it? Is contentment really so satisfying to us as people that we will shy away from, or battle anything that changes our current situation?

This may be the only blog post that asks more questions than provides insight. I guess it's because I really don't understand the fear of change that seems to exist in all of us, myself included. Fear and anxiety are the emotions that seem to come first when change is introduced. This is the case when faced with change both personally and professionally. So how can we deal with it? My grandmother used to say, "If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies". I thought she was so wise, but it turns out this really is a saying, not at all her own wisdom though the original author is unknown. When my grandmother would say this to me as child and as a teenager I would take it at face value. Caterpillars change into beautiful butterflies, so her message to me was change can be beautiful. Remembering this has always made situations of change a little easier for me to handle. Even when faced with the death of my beautiful grandmother many years ago. Her death marked a change huge change in my life, yet her own words helped me to find the beauty in her passing. 

Now I've reached a point in my life where I see opportunities for change a bit differently and this saying takes on a deeper meaning, something a bit more abstract. At age 39 when I call to mind the saying, "If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies", I take to mean in my stomach. Change can be exciting. Change can challenge you and your belief system. Change can be a motivator. Change can lead you to a places you've never experienced and without it you never would. It can improve your situation, but even if it doesn't at least you can learn from it. Change can make you better. So as we face change whether in our workplace or in our personal lives, let's try to embrace the butterflies we feel in our stomachs and enjoy the excitement of the possibility of being better for it. Without change, those butterflies and all that they stand for wouldn't exist.