Change is unavoidable, but we can be both rugged and flexible in the face of life's inevitable flux.
The way to stay stable through the process of change is by changing, at least to some extent. If you want to hold your footing, you've got to keep moving. |
 | | Julia Schimautz |
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I distinctly remember when the kernel of the idea for what became my new book, "Master of Change," popped into my mind. It was February 2021. We'd all been living with Covid-19 for nearly a year. I was in my kitchen in Western North Carolina, doing my usual skimming of the day's news. Regardless of the publication — left, right or center — I kept coming across headlines written in the spirit of "When are we going to get back to normal?" They rubbed me the wrong way, though at the time I didn't know why. |
What followed for me was a deep dive into change: When we are faced with change, why is it that we try to get back to where we were? Should we? What does it mean to be solid and strong when everything is always evolving, including us? |
The answers led me to a radical rethinking of change and some new ideas on how to work with it: We don't need to surrender all agency in the midst of a shift, nor do we need to latch onto control, which is often a futile endeavor. Rather, we can be both rugged and flexible in the face of life's inevitable flux. |
Change is hard for many people, including me. And yet it is also unavoidable. As I wrote in my essay for Times Opinion, we were living in a time of intensifying and accelerating change, whether in the form of a pandemic, new technologies like artificial intelligence or a destabilizing climate. If we are to maintain our health, let alone have any chance at flourishing, then we need to transform our relationship with change by becoming more active participants, understanding that we can shape change as much as it can shape us. |
| READ BRAD'S FULL ESSAY HERE | | |
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