When Creating Change Feels Hard, Keep This in Mind

When you want to change something in your life, work, or business it can feel hard, messy, and uncomfortable. It can trigger emotions that can feel challenging to navigate and overcome. It can require doing a long list of tasks that feel like a mountain to climb.

As a result, it is easy to fall into the trap of retreating, feeling stuck, or even giving up altogether on the change you want for yourself. It can keep you stuck in a status quo that you no longer want.  

I know first hand what this feels like. I have navigated many personal and professional changes since I left my corporate career twenty years ago to design my ideal life, work, and business.

Leaving a successful corporate career felt very scary at the time. Struggling with those difficult emotions and how hard it felt to leave the perceived security of the known for the uncertainty of the unknown resulted in me delaying taking the leap for quite some time.  

I have also made big changes to follow my dream of experiencing living in different countries. I left the UK in 2006 and lived in Ireland for 7 years before moving to Canada, where I now live. There have been many other personal and professional changes over the years too. All of them came with challenges to overcome and a range of emotions to navigate and deal with.  

Navigating the uncomfortable feelings, uncertainty, and the unknown can feel challenging and hard to process. Doing all the logistical tasks necessary to get from where you are to where you want to be can feel overwhelming and difficult.

But here’s the thing. If I hadn’t been willing to step into the pain and discomfort that comes with creating and navigating change, I would have stayed stuck in a status quo that was no longer working for me. I would have been throwing away pursuing the next chapter of life, work, and business that I wanted for myself that would be more fulfilling and meaningful to me. 

What people often overlook when they are just focusing on how hard creating change can be is this:

Creating change feels hard. But staying stuck feels hard and uncomfortable too. So, whichever option you choose, you are going to go through uncomfortable feelings.

But there is a difference between the two. It is this:

The permanent pain of staying stuck is far worse than the temporary pain of creating change.

When you choose to settle for a status quo you no longer want, is unfulfilling or not meaningful you stay stuck ongoing in those difficult feelings of being in something you don’t want and isn't working for you.

Yet, the pain of the change process is temporary. When you have navigated the process and come out the other side, the discomfort, uncomfortable feelings, and how hard it feels go away. 

And that is an important thing to keep in mind when change feels hard because it puts you in a position of choice.  

You can choose the ongoing pain and discomfort of feeling stuck or the temporary pain and discomfort of navigating the process of change.   

Choose wisely!