Change pain

I used to think I was open to change. I used to even go as far as to say that I embraced, loved and welcomed change.

I was mistaken.

You know how I know?

Three hours after getting my new Apple Mac laptop I was reduced to Neanderthal-like beating of clenched fists on my desk because I could no longer “alt tab”, because “alt s” no longer saved anything and because “alt f a” certainly no longer saved anything as anything else. In fact, my well-worn “alt” key was pretty much redundant and my “alt” loving brain couldn’t seem to handle it.

Three days later I was still claiming that I hated this new shiny silver laptop that had parlayed it’s way onto my desk.

Three weeks into the experience I’ve realized I’ve had to re-look at my whole opinions about change. I can’t just say I like change when it’s easy and smooth and intuitive. Sometimes change is going to force you out of your existing habits, sometimes it’s not going to flow seamlessly and sometimes it’s going to be a pain in the butt.

But if what you’re working towards leads to greater utility – might it not be worth it to find an “alt”-ernative to brutally abusing your desk?

And now as my phone rings with a new ringtone I made myself using Apple’s Garage Band and I edit a new movie for my real estate agency made in half the time using iMovie while setting up a new document for www.baby-teresa.com using an Apple template, I can just now start to see the rewards being worth a bit of short-term change pain.

Are you willing to go through some short-term change pain – to get better results – or will you just keep short changing yourself because you can’t hack the first three weeks?

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is ‘Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can’) and a passionate entrepreneur who started at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Currently Kirsty heads up www.reallysold.com the premium online copywriting site for real estate agents and is a co-director of Elephant Propertywww.elephantproperty.com.au Launceston, Tasmania’s only boutique real estate agency purely for investment property owners. Kirsty’s other ventures are outlined at her website www.kirstydunphey.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter.