Cha Cha Cha Changes
The title of this article is my attempt to sing to you via an article. It probably failed. Which makes it look now like I am talking about a dance move. I am not. But that’s ok. I might as well be.
Because change is in some ways a dance. Between us now and future us. I am bad at change. Actually, it turns out change is the only dance that I hate. And yes, I love dancing, even the macarena and especially the Robot. But the dance of a change is really not my jam.
Why?
Well precisely because it is not straight forward. One minute you are heading in a certain direction and then next you are feeling something completely different. Change is not a journey from one state to another, or rather it is but it seems in my experience to go back and forth rather than be an express service. And with that unpredictability our old friend acceptance rears it’s ugly head.
For me acceptance is the very foundation of growing up, it is the corner stone if you will, and as a result that arduous thing that we don’t really want to do but have to worm its way into everything.
Because change is something that whether we see it for good or bad can only move forward with acceptance. Not the kind that means it will always be like that, but more the recognition of the fact that it is like that right now. Which goes not just for the change itself but perhaps more impossibly for all the days that we move through on our way to completing that change. The emotions in between, the discomfort, excitement, anxiety, confidence, hunger, tiredness… the list goes on. The unpredictability is something we just have to get ok with not being ok with and leave it at that.
Meta I know. But I feel like unless you accept the dance of change you are going to be:
A) Stuck – Like when you want to move through a club to find your dance floor place and people are just always moving around you (Truthbomb – if you don’t start dancing there you will never make it out)
B) or Wasting too much energy lying to yourself – Much like waiting at the bar for a drink telling yourself you will get served, when we all know unless you push your way in that’s not going to happen.
So, in summary I guess what I am saying is change is like being at the club, and you just have to accept the dance that goes along with it because if not you will just have a crappy time and wish you had never gone (which spoiler alert is something you cannot change – ergo acceptance – it is the only way).
So, wherever you find yourself in the dance of change right now – accept it and if you can try and enjoy some of the moves before you move on.
Because as our friend Nietzsche would say – any day in which you have not danced is a wasted one. So let’s do this thing.