There are spiders. Clowns. Heights. Holidays with in-laws. Fears abound in many forms different for everyone. I don’t like any of them. But I don’t fear or resist anything more than change.

I know I’m not unique in that way. People will just do that. We’ll resist change, growth, excellence. So even good things: a new job, a new living situation, a new relationship (or new commitment to an existing relationship) will produce destabilizing effects simply because they are new. Even a change to your commute means you need to relearn the traffic patterns, the potholes to avoid, or even a whole new morning routine.

In the same way bodily survival mechanisms have us monitoring for potential danger, change signals physiological disruptions to our homeostasis, the organic tendency to regulate consistency. Your body does not encourage disruption, and that mechanism can act like a boulder on your psyche when presented with a change opportunity.

So there’s that. But, biological headwinds aside, what makes change difficult is all the feelings it produces. Change can be scary, and fear can drum up the greatest hits of things negative bias tells you in those moments. For me: you’re not good enough, you can’t do this, it’s too hard, you should stop, it was better before. Sound familiar at all?

I love consistency in my life. I love routine, I love schedules, and I’m particularly sensitive to time. Change is uncomfortable for me. And because of that, I can stick with the tried and true for long lengths of time, even if it’s not in my best interest.

We will be more willing to change when we believe the change is beneficial. This doesn’t mean the destabilizing forces vanish, but maybe we can swallow them a bit easier knowing what’s on the other side of it.

Having a coach to help you remember what’s on the other side of it is an effective way to navigate change. While patience and time are also part of the equation, developing goals and action plans around your acclimation, keeping you moving forward despite the fear and anxiety this change might produce, is effective at confidence-affirming and keeping you from turning around.

I cannot recommend coaching enough if you’ve recently changed jobs, careers, started or ended relationships, been promoted, or moved cities. If you’d like to talk about what this looks like, go ahead and schedule a free consultation with me, or keep learning about coaching on my site.

Go get ‘em this week.