"We tend to dislike uncertainty, and a big change can inject a whole lot of uncertainty into our lives. There's a fascinating scientific study showing that people are more stressed when they think they have a 50% chance of receiving an electric shock than when they think they have a 100% chance. We would rather know that something bad is going to happen than to wrestle with any ambiguity."
"Another reason change is scary is because it involves loss of some kind. By definition, change means we're moving from an old way of being into a new one. We may find that, in addition to feeling fear, we also feel profound grief for what we're losing. And when a big change happens, we can experience the loss of our self-identity. We might think, Who am I now that change has taken away what I once was?"
Humans dislike uncertainty and often find ambiguity more stressful than certainty, even about negative outcomes. Major changes introduce uncertainty and typically involve various kinds of loss, including grief for past roles and loss of self-identity. Experiencing change can prompt the question of who one is once previous roles or abilities are gone. A broad, robust self-identity reduces vulnerability to unexpected disruptions and supports adaptation. Personal setbacks can trigger profound grief but also create opportunities to reimagine and build a stronger, more resilient self.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]