Dealing with Change

(if you read my other blog, this may be familiar to you -
however I've made a few changes based on the clarity of a little more hindsight!!)

I recently made a lot of changes in several areas of my life (downsizing, my art-business, my career, my online presence,  not to mention this new blog with all it's self exposure).  And I'm sure I'll go thru more with my art itself as well as the kind of changes I'll have no control over as I age and as my kids go further in their adult lives.

Change itself usually doesn't scare me - as you can tell by the 83 gazillion hair-styles I have had or the number of times I rearrange the furniture.  (I had another birthday last month and I want to be sure that no one will ever be able to tell how old I am because I wear a hairstyle that screams which decade I went to high school or college!!  hehe)

But the ramifications of change can be paralyzing.  Hair grows out.  Furniture can be moved back. 

But quitting your day job to pursue your passion?!?!?  Are you nuts?  What if you don't sell anything and you end up living in a cardboard box?  What if you sell so much that you can't keep up with demand?  Okay, that last one is not one that's ever crossed MY mind, but you get the idea: 

the thought of change invokes fear.

Another artist-blogger wrote about this awhile ago.  The fact that she was able to step out of her fear long enough to throw it out into the world says a lot about how much she really wants to make this change.

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the Triumph over it. The brave man is not one who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepset fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." - Marianne Williamson

Looking back I find it interesting that we fear change but we don't fear being stuck in careers that suck out our souls; we fear change but we don't fear being taken for granted.  We think of CHANGE as the big-bad-monster hiding under the bed and the status quo as comfortable. 

Yet if you're like me and so many others, you KNOW in your heart of hearts that this is not the life you should be living.  Your fear of change is keeping you from being your true, best self.

When I post next time, I'll write more about facing our fears.