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The Habit of Embracing Change

Change is everywhere and it is here to stay. You can either suffer constantly when the next change hits you, or you can adopt a habit of embracing it.

Change is a constant factor in our everyday lives. Now, when the whole world is practicing social distance and/or quarantine, in a situation that only a few anticipated, change is even more relevant. But we, humans, are not built flexible. Most of our brains’ efforts are spent to find a safe behavior and make us stick to it. This is a challenge because nothing is safe in times of uncertainty and change.

In this article I will show you how to adopt a habit of embracing change. There are many things that can help you be successful in your personal and professional life, but this skill is going to make you successful at almost anything. As we get further into the twenty-first century, I believe that there will be two skills which will be more and more valuable. Learning how to learn fast and learning how to embrace change.

Do What You Love or Love What You Do

Doing what you love is bad advice. Working hard, improving the skills that stand out, taking small steps forward, is what gets you to love what you do.

Should you try to do what you love (a.k.a. your passion) for a living? You get bombarded with this question over and over again in your everyday life. It is on the social media (e.g. people posting about doing what they love and getting paid for it). It is also on the TV (e.g. famous celebrities evangelizing their lifestyles and how they satisfy even their weirdest pleasures). And of course, it is also in the movies and songs (e.g. those influencers that changed the world by pursuing their dreams). In short, doing what you love is about following your passion.

In this article, I will argue against following your passion. And I will argue for another approach – adopting a different mindset, deliberately working on your habits, defining the areas where you are great, and, ultimately, learning to love what you do. In short, defining the passion as the product of your work, rather than defining work as the product of your passion.

Professional Growth

Moving out of the personal sphere, we are getting into the professional sphere. With personal growth and personal optimization you sow the field of success, and with professional growth and professional productivity you fertilize it. This means that you can get results by only mastering the first two pillars, but with the last two you can get results on steroids.

Continue reading “Professional Growth”