Here we go again. Our world is changing, in big and little ways. It’s the end of the school year, a new season approaches, and new technologies and troubles are surrounding us. Whether you are a kindergartener or graduate, a leader or a worker, a mom or dad, a singleton, newly coupled, or a long-term pair, change is part of life. Sometimes change comes to you unbidden. You may choose simple changes or hard ones. Sometimes you choose to become your true self.
If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.“
Dolly Parton
Change is Hard
Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.”
Mandy Hale
Bet you knew that already. Yet most of us hold some level of dread about change. Change is hard.
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”
Amelia Earhart
The Challenge of Change
You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.”
Marianne Williamson
No matter who you are, how you identify, where you live, how old you are—you will face change. You can try to ignore it. You can try to hold on to your old ways of being. Painfully, change will still happen and you will have missed an opportunity.
We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”
Oprah Winfrey
You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.”
Shonda Rhimes
How hurtful it can be to deny one’s true self and live a life of lies just to appease others.”
June Ahern
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”
Gail Sheehy
Keep an Open-mind
If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.”
Geena Davis
If you embrace change as an opportunity, you allow yourself to receive blessings and challenges with grace and strength.
When in doubt, choose change.”
Lily Leung
Each moment is perfect and heaven-sent, in that each moment holds the seeds for growth.”
Suzan-Lori Parks
Get Support
Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.”
Gail Sheehy
Yes, change can be scary. It can hold difficulties and feel overwhelming. If it feels too big, too much, too everything—get help. Help comes in many forms. It can mean journaling, talking to a trusted partner or friend or mentor. Or reading a post like this.
Sometimes, you may need professional help.
If you simply need someone to talk to, click here or call 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.”
Barbara Kingsolver
We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”
May Sarton
Change Takes Time
Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream.”
Debby Boone
Change is like a seed. A seed must receive nourishment and time to grow into a seedling, then unfurl leaves, and finally to grow into its full potential. Even adjusting to the change in weather or wardrobe or a new home, change takes time. Give yourself grace. Allow yourself the time you need.
Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping.“
Julia Margaret
Appreciate Where You Are
Each step of your journey through change brings you new joys and fears. Appreciate your flexibility and your strength and the growth that brought you to this new level.
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you…never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Believe in Yourself
Change will challenge you, maybe shake your belief in yourself. So remember the words of these mentors.
No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.”
Madonna
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Harriet Tubman
Sometimes in life, we take a leap of faith. Remember, the leap is not about getting from one side to the other. It’s simply about taking the leap…and trusting the air, the universal breath, will support your wings so that you may soar.”
Kristi Bowman
I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
Mother Teresa
Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”
Margaret Mead
Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
Ella Fitzgerald
Please take a moment to congratulate yourself for a change you’ve made in the comments below.
Image Credits
Top image by Hans from Pixabay
Last image by Frauke Riether from Pixabay