Don’t Change You, Adapt Your Perception

This morning I have more questions than answers.  I’ve been thinking about change and why everyone, myself included, thinks we need to change something.  Maybe we do, but what if we don’t need to.  What if we need to stop focusing on change management and instead focus on adapting and accepting what is?

I posed a question on FaceBook over the weekend to friends and family.  I asked, “If you could change one thing about your boss, it would be…?”

The overwhelming answer was that the respondent would change themselves and not the boss.  I admit, that would have been my answer too.  The more I thought about it though, what if you just accept the boss, flaws and all.  What if you just accept your family members, your friends, your colleagues for exactly the way they are?

Think about yourself for a moment.  Would you say you are happy with the way you look, with your health and fitness, or even the amount of sleep you get?  Assume you think you need to lose 10- 20 pounds.  What if instead of fretting each day about it, going on diets to lose the weight, then gaining it back again and again, what if you just accepted yourself the way you are?  Maybe you are supposed to be that weight.  Maybe you are supposed to feel the way you do.

Like I warned you at the beginning, today I have more questions than answers.  Are we too driven to change?  Can we ever be happy with the way things are?  Can you just adapt to what “is”?