It’s inevitable and you have a choice: Embrace it or live in fear of it.
You will need to adapt today in order to be successful tomorrow. Period. Are you one who draws back from change in fear or are you one of those who embrace change?
I have felt both ends of that emotion in my lifetime. Educated as a geographer (or more of a cartographer) as an undergrad and graduate student, I spent 15 years in the mapping industry (MapQuest co-founder, President at Rand McNally). In 1995 I had an opportunity to lead a $25M corporate venture capital subsidiary. Even though I was running towards this opportunity I spent months almost paralyzed in fear of what I did not know. I was out of my element.
A few years later, I had had enough of corporate America and found myself in the mud of entrepreneurship. It’s a dirty, unclear existence and I found myself in a series of 2-3 year CxO jobs over a 12-year period. It was time to move on. It was time to reinvent myself again.
Cue, Sir Richard Branson. “Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change. A company that stands still will soon be forgotten. Trying to provoke positive change is a principle we’ve embedded across the Virgin family.”
Substitute person for company and you can apply the same wisdom to your personal life.
My epiphany years ago was to stop living in fear of the inevitable changes, but to seek and embrace those exact changes. My first conversation was with my wife and I explained to her that this was the new professional version of me from this day forward. The new me would be seeking exciting and probably crazy-sounding opportunities and I was going to release control of where this would take me (us).
I find this the single most empowering notion I have employed in my lifetime.
Are you ready for that realization? Can you rewire your psyche? There are so many opportunities out there calling our name if only we have the emotional foundation to embrace them.