Why do people avoid change?

Ever wonder why people tend to follow the same path? For example, your father may insist on wearing the same hairstyle since 1978?? Or you may always order the same thing when you go to your favorite restaurant.

Why is this? Let's get a discussion going!

Happy Discussing
C. Howell-Vischer

to my mind, most people cannot avoid change at all. everything around them just changes and they have no power at all to control the change or slow it down. so many people (including myself) might like to have some things they can come back to, things they have always experienced in the same way. that might be a special haircut, like the father in the example, a special kind of food, a special road to get to a certain place, a ritual on a holiday... it is kind of giving structure to one's life and there are (hopefully) no bad surprises. no effort is needed or preparation to do something you have done very often already... quite different from the "world outside that can hardly be influenced", in which you have to be on the watch all the time because you never know what's going to happen ...
maybe that's also why good and often long-held friendships are so important. even though you have new topics to discuss, you can always feel save and relaxed meeting them, even after a long-time-no-see...
well, there are certainly thousands of other reasons, but maybe that is somewhere to start from...

sorry, quite a long post ^^

So many people avoid change because it's just safer to do so - when they can. Perhaps it's a form of control?

Under 'Change' we understand when something becomes different, or the result of something becoming different.

A change could introduce insecurity and uncertainty into your life. That is why people are not in favor of a 'change'. In other words you are content with your surroundings and does not want to alter anything.

When it comes to socks or underwears, the resistence to change is little, since there is not much of a risk of losing something, however should you change your job or move cities there is a higher risk of possible chaos, stress and so on.

It is normal we, human beings tend to minimize those unpleasant factors but change is happening everywhere, everyday. Maybe it eases one, if he or she take change as a life booster.

A change is going to come whether you like it or not.

A pleasant weekend to you all

Dee

hey everyone,
i agree with what has been said so far - that most people simply avoid change because they are afraid of what will happen... however, i have the feeling that change is often considered to be negative and i think this is wrong! a change can also be an opportunity for things to become "better"...
maybe the thought "it's not good or bad, it's just different" may help to accept change (which is sometimes inevitable...)

Hello everybody:)

I am also convinced that people avoid change due to feelings of fear, they are frightened of failing or not mastering challenging tasks. As we can clearly extract from the little nice story "Who moved my cheese?", people are mainly opposed to change because they assume that the possible risk factors that are connected to change are high and insuperable. They are simply afraid of "losing their way", like the little people in the story that do not dare walking into the dark mace. The main problem is that people constantly resisting to change and sticking to old habits and customs do not experience the positive aspects of change.

Greetings from Linda
Have a nice weekend

A world without change is almost impossible. Nevertheless there are numerous people who avoid change. They think that a change is related with a risk or would be negative.

However change makes us grow and learn stronger. People have to adapt to meet the needs of a company for example. Change is an important factor to grow and to develop in each particular situation.

Hi everyone,
i totally agree to what has been said so far.

The current situation is something i would like to add. I think the the overall environment or current situationis a key driver for change. For example: nowadays a change in the financial system is on its way. Two years ago this would have been quite difficult. Prior to this change the situation within the system changed and made change possible. Propably this idea can be connected to the idea of change being regarded as risky. If a system failed the risk of change is quite low, if there is nothing to loose anymore.

Hi,

maybe I got this wrong but it sounds here as most people would avoid change. All the time. But people just avoid change if they expect a negative change. If poeple move from a small flat to nice big house they won't avoid the change. They can't wait for the change to come and live in the nice house. If it is the other way round they propably try to avoid the change cause they want to stay where they think its better. So peolpe try to avoid change if its a negative change. And that is quite sensible. Why would someone want a negative change? And some poeple love change and want to change their hole live every few month. Maybe a little less change would be better in some fields. Look at all the people getting divorced. They want change.

But yes, people avoid changes and of course in sometimes that is not good. From my point of view there is a problem if poeple don't want change even if its for the better. And I think that is because they can't picture this change. They just do not know what they might have. They know what they have now and just don't want it to become worse.

Very good comments and observations in the forum so far!

Have you ever felt the need to change - yet it just feels wrong? For example,in order to get a job with a certain company, you realize that you must "dress" in a certain way to be accepted?

Would you "change" if you knew that your salary would double?

Is change about conforming for the sake of receiving the benefits that come with "the norm"?

I know these are deep thoughts...... too much coffee does this do you.....

well, i do think that people cannot avoid change. this is on the one hand due to environmental changes and on the other hand because people want to be happy. from my experience, changing something in one’s life can be a big benefit- although it might also fail. in this point, I agree with nadja, that people are looking forward to change if they definitely expect it to be positive. if something changes that makes a situation worse, people will be afraid of change. however, in my opinion people can always learn from any kind of change.

concerning the situation you just created: this is kind of a double- edged sword. everyone must judge for himself what might be worthier for him- a high salary or not pretending to be someone else. if one can deal with being someone else at work and change back to the person he or she used to be in the afternoon, well, everything might be allright. if one is not able to do that, a high salary is not worth the change.

well, also had a lot of coffee today...

Most people avoid change owing to fear of failure. Another reason for resisting
change is that they feel uncomfortable and they are creatures of habit. Thus,
doing things in the same routine, predictable manner is comfortable. Additionally, people do not see the necessity for change to a great extend. They do not see the big picture. Adding to this, some people may resist change beacuse they fear thtat the change will not result in improvement.

Regards.

Tobi

I think that resisting to change or opening up towards any kind of change depends on ones personality and values and how one sees the change(skeptical feelings, totally convinced of change...). A good change for one individual can be a bad change for someone else.I think that the feelings that are connected to the change(is it positive or negative for me?)are responsible for behaviour. Another aspect is what implications it has on your life and how you put value on certain things. If we take the example of an increase in salary against change this may cause some people making an effort changing things(because they attach importance to money, status, nice lifestyle). But there are people who are possibly not willing to change for this reason because the trade-off between change and an increase in salary is bigger. Probably they can not identify themselves with the change and rather accept a modest remuneration. I think there are different approaches towards change, depending on the persons preferences or cultural background.

Greetings from Linda

Just to come back to what Constance said: Of course some people change theirselves, e.g. in order to receive a high salary. However, from my point of view changing yourself for work and pretending to be somebody else will not work for a long time. I don´t think you can strictly seperate between work and freetime so that in the end some characteristics of yourself will automatically change.

That doesn´t mean that I am against changes - but I think changing yourself whenever it is needed is not the right way. Instead, you should clearly think about what you want to achieve, how you want to do so and how you can still work in the way you feel confidently with.

First of all I agree to many aspects that were mentioned in the comments so far.
To me the main aspect of change is to process of adapting. It's like buying a special good. First I see it,then I analyse it,I take a look at the price/design/image etc., then I decide if I need it or not, then I decide if I need it the way it is or does it need any preparation and only if all these aspects are responded with a YES then I buy it. So the adapting process is a very long complex process and so is change in any way.
Another aspect to my mind is the fear of loosing things that proved to be the true or the propably best way when trying something new. The "old way" was a way I could handle good and satisfatory. New things have thousands of different aspects I'm not able to cope with in this particular topic and viewpoint. On the one hand new things and changes provide excellent opportunities to obtain something better than before on the other hand they are quiet risky and need the self-confidence to handle them isn't it that way?

Greetz

I totally agree with Roman that change has always something to do with a kind of adaption process. Nevertheless you need consistent and in-depth information to the related change. That is the reason why I am conviced that numbers of people tend to evaluate changes initially as negative because they often do not get enough information or are to lazy to ask for more input which would enable them the needed in-depth analysis of the situation. Without this anylsis they hardly will be followers of the intended change.

Additionally the impacts of changes seldom can be predicted properly which constitutes uncertainty which fears so many people.

Hi @ all

Perhaps in addition to all the other points mentioned another aspect to be considered when talking about resistance to change might be the age of people.

An example: Many of us had to leave their home towns and move hundreds of kilometres in order to be able to start their studies at accadis. This is, of course, a very big change, because nobody can predict how starting a whole new life will end up. Nevertheless, many of us, being young and flexible, thought that starting a new life in uncertain circumstances would be worth the try.

For older people, on the other hand, even moving from one flat to the other in the same city, or even on the same street, is equal to an unmasterable obstacle.

So from my point of view resistance to change is also dependant on the positive aspects one is able to connect with a change and I like to state the thesis: the younger the more open-minded a person is towards change.

Looking forward to hear your thoughts on this...

Greets

I also totally agree with the previous comments! So after I just registered, I have to comment too :-)

In general, I think people have the tendency wanting to control their lives as much as possible. Now, while people are living in their "running system", where everything works, where they have their daily lives and where they just know what's good and bad, they automatically have a certain secureness of how future is going to be. This is due to the fact that life in this case is more or less a routine.

However, when people face changes, live goes beyond their routine and future becomes not as predictable anymore. In the urge of wanting to maximize control, which automatically leads to a high certainty of knowing what is going to be in the future, people often avoid changes in order not to leave the path of their structured life.

The fear that something becomes bad in the future that's good in the present (or even just "ok") is too large for people who don't face changes. For example, a person who is fairly satisfied with his job he is been doing for many years might not quit or get a new job because he/she might be afraid that any kind of new job might turn out to be failure after a few month. So they stay.

Nevertheless, people OFTEN forget that something that is good (or "ok") can even become better - can become VERY VERY GOOD. So people who don't face changes automatically loose the opporturnity to improve life.

In the end, while others (neighbours, friends, family members) move on and they keep getting stuck in their own "secure avoiding change world", they will eventually get the feeling of getting passed or even of moving backwards.

Change is nessecary to keep the pace of life, to keep improving life and while doing this, hopefully being a role modell for others to follow and enjoy life as its maximum too.

Hey at all,
to me, I can say that I really found myself very often in your posts. Today, change is often classified to be something negative. A change, however where, is hardly fulfilled, when the outcome is probably predicted to be worse than the previous state. But - as already mentioned, we look in the world and see so many changes. But why do we see them when the word change is afflicted more negative than positive?
I wondered why Barack Obama was not mentioned yet? Since he decided to candidate for the presidency of the United States (and he finally succeeded)the term CHANGE has been started to renew itself. Hopefully in a postive way. Millions of Americans and Europeans, Asian, ..., followed and are following the Obama Change-Path, so they are actually doing the opposite: they do not avoid change, they claim for change!

Have a nice day

Heyyou,

in my opinion change does not imply necessary positive aspects. It is also important who want to change something. However as my classmates wrote change happened and if change happened many people participate with it but with competely different attitudes. The missing of a specific goal creates a danger of a development in a not considered direction. Good attitudes disappeared and could be replaced by ideas, which do not necessarily corelate with the aim of the change. Such developments are difficult to stop if a major amount of people support a change and is in a some kind of a rush. It has to be mentioned that in such cases it is difficult to channel these powers in a direction.
So in fact change implies many positive aspects however in my opinion change can also lead to worse developments.

Hey Everbody

In my opnion most people are always intereseted in well structured life. And thats a reason why they avoid change. They hope by doing the same like the last 5 years for example they don´t have to adapt to something new.

But as far as I can see it is very important to change yourself and keep up with the times. A good example we can see in office with senior colleagues who never wanted to change their working style and never want to work with a computer. They now have big problems in daily business by working with modern software as a result of avoiding change some years ago.

Best Wishes

followed and are following the Obama Change-Path, so they are actually doing the opposite: they do not avoid change, they claim for change!

i was thinking of obama too... but let's be honest: it couldn't get any worse in america

i think that many people were already dissatisfied with the situation in the states for quite some time and therefore had time to "prepare for a change". barack obama took advantage out of that, motivated them and showed them how the future could be (e.g.: one of obama's campaign ads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JnwkY2L74c )... people believed it and that's why they "claimed" the change.
i'm not sure if he would have been that successful ~10 years ago...

I agree with many of your aspects in this discussion, nevertheless I have to fully agree with Max, that change is not always positive, especially if it is rapid and at the same time ill-conceived.

Surely young people are more open to change than older people because they often are less bound to a fixed place by family or work. Think about the older ones, who eventually lived for over 30-40 years in the same town and the same lifestyle. How can we satisfy them with change?

Therefore I think, that plans for a change have to be well-conceived and well-illustrated in advance so that everyone is able to understand the different checkpoints of change as well as the reasons for it.

Best regards

Apparently, some people are embracing change, but aren’t aware of the dangers inherent in changing the ways things are. If you’re not careful, all kinds of strange things might happen in your otherwise ordered life.
Losing something is the main sorrow of the human race. Sometimes it’s better to stay right where you are. Where you are right now is a known quantity - it’s safe, warm and comfortable. That gives us a felling of protection.

Some people might hear a little voice in their head that tells them “that something has to change”. Most of them will ignore it. Those people who ignore it drive, visually seen, on a country road or maybe on the right side of the highway: Not so fast, sheltered, not taking a risk. On the other hand the risk is very low causing an accident.
Those people who hear the voice and initiate the change and entering a risk could cause an accident, but they could also have success in what they are doing. They overhaul those people who drive on the right side and so they are faster on target.

Change is everywhere in 2009, so if you’re one of the people out there looking to make a change in 2009 rather than having change made for you should set the expectations low. Set your expectations high and you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment.
We all made experience with things that rarely turn out as we want them to, so set your expectations low that you don’t end up more disappointed than necessary.