Change

My final semester at BYU is drawing to a close, and I'm faced with a lot of decisions concerning my future. While I am excited to conclude my undergraduate education, and I'm excited to enter a new chapter of my life, change is also intimidating.

I work at the Utah State Hospital, an acute psychiatric inpatient care facility, and this morning I was reading an article written by the superintendent. In this article, he discussed change in our individual lives, pointing out that so often we forget the very thing we discuss with our patients to help them deal with change: change can be a great opportunity for growth and happiness.

I'd like to share a couple of quotes which the superintendent shared which were particularly poignant. The first of these quotes is by a philosopher who said, "If nothing changes, nothing changes." This is so obvous!!! Why is it so easy to forget that if we want our life to change, we have to CHANGE!!!!? We can't expect to retain the same routine and have changes for good, we must make changes to have change in our life!

The next quote is by Elbert Hubbard, who points out that: "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." Sometimes I get caught up in worrying that I will make the wrong decision. I procrastinate make a decision for long periods of time, only to miss out on opportunity. Sometimes in the future I look back at a decision I feared to make and laugh at my own fear. I can see the good that has come from making a decision, and I sometimes wish I wouldn't have wasted so much time worrying about the decision.
A leap of faith is exactly what it sounds like--a stretch! Yes, it is uncomfortable, and yes it can even be painful. But when we make the changes necessary to change without fearing we will make the wronge decision, we will make progress in our lives. We will experience blessings and opportunities. And we will ultimately find growth and joy resulting from change.