Let’s Talk About Change…

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination”
Jimmy Dean

The quote above is a fairly interesting & insightful one, wouldn’t you agree? They are words taken from the late American country singer, tv host & actor Jimmy Dean, and are all about the topic of change – something that we are going to be looking at in today’s blog. So, let’s get cracking!

Hello & Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

As we go through life, we begin to notice that changes happen all the time. It was the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus, who said that “change is the only constant in life”, and this is something that a large majority of people believe to be true. We face new changes on a daily basis, some of which we can predict & can plan & prepare for, and then there are the others which we have to adapt to as & when they arise.

If we go back to the start of 2020 for instance, nobody could have predicted that our lives would undergo such a major change for such a long period of time, but it is something that we have had to adapt to & make the most out of. Looking back on this past year, so much of our lives have changed, some things in a good way, others in a bad way, and that is completely okay, it is a part of life.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about change, as I am currently in the stage of my life where a lot of things are going to change in the near future, and I want to make sure that I have taken the time to decide what path I would like to venture down going forward. I recently made the choice to alter my plans for after I finish university, and while I still have quite a lot of thinking to do, I am happy that I made the choice that I did.

As I mentioned before, change can exist in each & every part of our lives. There can be changes that directly affect us, or the ones around us, and there can be those that do not. There can be changes that can cause us to dramatically modify the way that we live our lives, and there are those which do not. There are those that we can predict, and those that we cannot. What I am getting at here is that change is something that happens to us all, it is not something to necessarily be afraid of, but more so to consider when needed.

One of the biggest components of change is how we decide to react to it. Going back to the opening quote on today’s blog, we do not have any control over the direction of the wind, but what we do have control over is our reaction, in this case adjusting the sails so that we can always reach our destination.

You see the quote can be split into 2 separate parts, a fixed part & a variable part. In this case, the fixed part, or the area in which we have no control over is the direction & strength of the wind. The variable part, the part which we have more control over, is how we react to the fixed change, so in this case, again, it would be adjusting the sails to reach our destination.

These times of change, when the change can be split into different parts, can be found a lot in life, and can be really handy when it comes to how we decide to approach this change. There are going to be things that are out of control, so if we use those to influence what our reaction to whatever the change is going to be, then surely we will be better equipped for what’s to come, don’t you think?

So there we have it, change is an inevitable part of our lives, in my opinion, it is how we prepare & react to change that is the most important thing, but that could be just me, who knows!

Thank you all for reading today’s blog, what do you think? How do you react to changes in your life? What does change mean to you? Have you ever learnt anything new from a change in your life?

Be sure to let me know your thoughts & answers to the above questions, either in the comment section below or through our Facebook page!

Thank you all for reading & I hope you have a lovely weekend!