“I just don’t think that’s going to work. I mean it’s going to be so different and I just don’t know if this is such a good idea to have all this change.”

We have all had this thought or heard a friend voice their concern in this manner about the new ways things are going to be next year. Different class schedules, changes in your organization or the restructuring of your job, they all make us worry to an astonishing extent. Although with good reason, as we have grown accustomed to the status quo and we know how everything works as it is, we should not be so afraid and repulsed by change especially if the change is going to happen regardless anyway.

I have witnessed quite a lot of this in the past few weeks as many of my fellow students got their housing assignments for next school year and my coworkers began to discuss the changes in our job descriptions in the near future. The anxiety-based hypothesis about what it was “going to be like” were rampant and blown extremely out of proportion. Don’t get me wrong, I had my concerns as well, but I didn’t ever think that it wouldn’t work. It will take some getting used to, however, these changes could work out better than what we had in the past.

The reason it is so concerning that people are so resistant to change is that if they stick to their opinion, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; their negative attitude affects the change. If you don’t want to accept the change, you won’t. All you have accomplished then is proved your own point with pure bias. You have to be at least willing to try the changes before you completely reject them. If they don’t work, so be it, at least you gave it a chance and you understand why the changes don’t work, as opposed to insisting they don’t without trying at all.

You have to be cognizant of the other people when you worry about change as well. The changes may affect them too and voicing your rather irrational apprehensions could spread the fear to them as well. Knowing how quickly word spreads in this day and age, the infection can spread like an epidemic and soon everyone is anxious about the changes. I am not saying expressing concerns isn’t important, doing so in a manner that doesn’t incite such concern among others and expressing concerns to people who may actually have some insight into the changes can actually be helpful and clarifying.

Having concerns about change is normal, but don’t let the fears hold you back. Be willing to accept and try the change, understand the change, and discuss the change in an appreciative manner and you will find yourself in a more dynamically comfortable life in the future.