Fear of Change

Change, by definition means to become or make something different. Change is the oldest known roadblock in the history of man. Change can take hold of our lives, causing catastrophic differences in our plans and our minds. It waver’s in our every decision, and remains in our thoughts at all times. Change is frequent, and is often the biggest factor in all of our lives. But why are we afraid of change? Why do we go to great lengths to keep everything the same? We can not even begin to prevent change, yet we can not go a day without fearing it.

Change occurs around us on a minimal level. Change is constant and unrelenting, it surrounds us, and controls all of our decisions. The fear of having to learn something new, to meet new people, and to experience new things. It is a more relevant fear and far more serious than anyone of us would openly admit. Everyone is suspect to it’s grasp, I myself have experienced fear of change, everyone has. In the past I have foregone my opportunity to improve my life so I could stay put, in the safety of my home, and as a result I was left feeling disappointed with myself, that I let the fear of having to be someplace new alter my decision. Instead of learning something new and gaining knowledge from experience, I chose to instead keep my mundane lifestyle. But even with this knowledge I was unable to keep from falling victim to the fear of change.

There is really no way to combat this fear of change. It is persistent and remains in the minds of everyone. No one likes change; just the idea of something new frightens everyone on some level. The fear of change can be anything, the fear of losing a loved one, so you do not let them go anywhere or drive at certain times. The fear of meeting new people, so you stay inside and keep to yourself. Or even the fear of experiencing something different, so you choose to keep your dead end job and stay with what you know. All of these things are an example of the fear of change. No matter what it is, change is always looked on as negative. But I have since realized otherwise. Change is what drives us; it enables us to fight for what we love, in fear of losing it. If everything remained the same, then we would never accomplish anything truly amazing. We would not have discovered electricity, or figured out how to utilize oil. We would be stuck in a perpetual state of mundaneness. Our lives, though, would be perfect and safe, we would be too afraid to act on anything. Our lives would be uninteresting to say the least. Change is the essence of life, things have been changing since the dawn of time, and the fact that they do change causes us to appreciate what we have all the more.