Avoidance of Change Blocks You From Reaching Your True Potential

The current research seems to bear it out: a Gallup Poll reveals a high percentage of Americans are unhappy and unfulfilled, only 30 % of Americans feel engaged by their work and more than 60% do not feel that their skills and talents are being used effectively in their work or by their employer. One of the driving questions I often think about is: if people are not happy with their lives and with their jobs and with what they spend their time doing each day, then why won’t more people make changes in their life? Why do so many people, as Henry David Thoreau wrote nearly 200 years ago, “lead lives of quiet desperation” remaining unhappy, tragically stuck in situations that are draining them of vitality, hope, enthusiasm, and energy?

Of course part of the blame is to be put on the work and economic system, we know that the state of the American economy in 2014 is not optimal and that there is a big rift between rich and poor and that the material gains of work are not always the driving force they could be for vocational satisfaction. For that matter, even in more comfortable times it’s never been easy to create or find the job of one’s dreams, it simply won’t fall into your lap. Nevertheless, the reality is that America is among the most abundant countries in the world with tremendous opportunity, even with a down but shifting upward economy. We also know that happiness is not ALL about work, there is a bigger picture to the "happiness puzzle," but job satisfaction does comprise a substantial piece of this puzzle. Knowing that one spends almost ½ their waking hours at their work, it then becomes clear how significant job satisfaction will be to life satisfaction.

The reason that people remain stuck is that too often, people tend to avoid change. We tend to avoid making decisions and changes necessary to create happiness and fulfillment based upon feelings of comfort or short-term gain, rather than long-term fulfillment. If there is a steady paycheck coming each week, even if it is not truly what we know we need in terms of happiness, still we don’t want to rock the boat and jeopardize it.

Ask yourself extremely an important question: “What is holding me back to living my passion?” “What are the roadblocks – in terms of psychological, financial, life resources, or anything else – I am allowing to impede my pursuit of happiness and fulfillment?” Remember that the founding fathers declared in the Declaration of Independence over 200 years ago that, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are unalienable rights given by our Creator. What they wrote was true; however, what the founders did not also mention was that we sometimes must pursue or create these things in order for them to work for us in our lives, they probably aren’t going to drop in our laps. Unfortunately, at times we are each our own worst enemy and allow the fear of change, avoidance, or denial to get in the way of finding our own truth. You can therefore ask, what are some ways to make life transformation easier to handle so I won't fear change so much?