Do you embrace change? Or resist it?
Perhaps the answer depends on the circumstances of the change. But no matter what your reaction, it’s important to know that change will happen.
It’s bittersweet for me to think of Grace aging. I always loved her beautiful, deep reddish color that now seems lighter, transitioning to more and more grey over her face. Her running sprints seem shorter and not quite as fast, even though she’s still quick enough to outpace many dogs, no matter what their size. I admit to having a twinge of sadness when I can no longer think of her as young (she’s not old yet, either!), but I realize that it’s just one of many natural changes of life that happens to all of us.
Change happens all the time, all around us. Priorities in our work, people who we work with, companies we work for, products we sell, the tools we use to communicate, are all constantly in flux. If we don’t stay current with those changes, we get left behind. So we need to find ways to adjust and manage the change as opposed to trying to stop it. It will happen whether we stand still or not. Will we move with it? Or will we get left behind?
Sometimes we initiate the change and other times we have no control over it. In either case, it brings uncertainty, and that can be stressful. It can also be equally exciting. And yes, sometimes both!
That’s what I feel with my new website.
It’s been fun to watch the design evolve and come to life; an endless stream of fresh energy. It hasn’t been easy, though. There were a ton of details that had to be planned and executed. I was fortunate to have the skills of many talented people to pull the ideas into reality. My goal was to have a website to better reflect who I am and what I do, and serve as a forum and resource for ongoing learning. You can let me know if I hit the mark. I always welcome your ideas and suggestions.
The project required a lot of time to understand what I needed to do, what I wanted to accomplish, what I could do myself, and what I needed help with. There were many unknowns to me and even though it was something I really wanted, it would have been a lot easier to put it on the back burner and say I didn’t have time or that what I had was good enough.
There have been days when I’ve looked at other sites and felt like I was so behind, that I had so much catching up to do. I had endless questions. How would the information be organized? What pictures should I include? Do I really need a Facebook page? How would my current blog be impacted from a technology perspective? There were moments when it seemed overwhelming.
I tried not to get mired in what I didn’t know or didn’t have, but stay focused on what was possible and move forward to do what I could. When faced with resisting change or embracing it, it’s helpful to think about what you can do as opposed to what you can’t.
Grace can still run circles around most anyone, despite those grey hairs I see. For all of us, it’s a good lesson to remember that time won’t stop and wait for us to catch up. It’s best to keep moving forward than not moving at all.
