Why Are People Resistant to Change?

One thing I must admit is that am one of those guys resistant to changes no matter how small they may appear.

Today I read Kyle's post about the new changes that are going to take place soon or later in Wealthy Affiliate flatform, but his post also left me thinking about the issue of CHANGE and how people respond to it. I have been thinking about this: Why are people resistant to change?

For those of you who might have missed this update, you can read it here: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/kyle/blog/user-experience-ux...

In this post I will be discussing important reasons as to why are people resist change.

Reasons As To Why People Are Resistant To Change

I know that obviously there are more reasons than the ones that am going to list here because each individual person has enought reasons to resist change.

1. Not Ready To Come Out Of The Comfort Zone

When people do something in a certain way for long, they have a tenderncy of getting used to a certain way of doing it. The body and mind develops a way of adopting to the routine whereby there's no much thinking because the routine is assimilated in both mind and body. So when a change comes, the joy of comfort zone is broken and when this happens, there's some discomfort connected to it. This is what I don't personally like.

For example, my job shift changed from morning to night and I didn't like it because my body is used to sleeping and waking up at a certain time. Now since the shift is different, it means that I sleep during the day which totally difficult for me. My comfort zone is interfered with already!

2. Lack Of Preperation

Despite how well you may be connected to the change, it is always a bother if there is no prior preparation and proper consultation. In any given company, and for any authority with the people at heart, it is good to contact a well-rounded consultation. Preparation involves notices, training and provision of adequate information on what the new change entails.

On this point, both Kyle and Carson are on point because they always take time to prepare the community about any slight changes that are gonna take place. To me this shows how much they care about what any slight change may affect the community at large.

3. Fear Of The Unknown

Naturally, people fear the unknown when it comes to change. They actually don't know what they are afraid of because in the first place they don't know what exactly is in the change package. People fear the risks involved in any change that comes, for example if it's in a company, people may fear about loosing their jobs and money.

People don't believe in uncertainities and unpromising future and this would make people opt for what they have at hand.

When I read Kyle's blog about the change, I realized that it provides a lot of hope for our future development in terms of business, training and socialization. So, there's no need of fearing the unknow here.

4. Challenges Attached To The New Routine

When change comes, it comes with its own new challenges. It's natural that people don't like facing challenges especially when they've to look for solutions and ways to go about it. People opt and wish to stay with the challenges they already know and have ways to cope with it.

It's important to note that life would be too boring if there were no challenges either. There's a nice feeling that comes with being able to go through a challenge and victoriously overcome it.

5. Inadequacy

When change comes, as we've discussed above it comes with new challenges and a demand of new skills. This may call for a total overhaul of employees in a given company or training which may take time and resources. Most people may rarely admit feeling inadequate when change comes yet it's a reality.

Both Kyle and Carson are always aware of this fact and that's why they're on their toes to lay a good foundation when it comes to training. Everyone will admit that at one time we all felt newbies but as time goes by through training and active participation in the community, everything falls in place.

6. Lack Of Faith On The New Routine

Again this is a fact that people won't talk about openly. When change comes, people have some questions they ask themselves: What exactly is this change? How is it going to affect me (us)? Is it going to work? Suppose I don't manage to cope? Do I have the skills needed? etc.

People fear change because they fear to risk doing something that may not work. Personally, am a risk taker and I've achieved a lot in life because of risking. The danger of risking is that you may end up loosing more and I've found myself in such situations but this has never been any drawback to me.

7. Unproductivity

What do I mean by unproductivity? When change is first initiated, it definitely affects productivity in many ways. People's performance gets thwarted because they're not used to the new setup of things. Time that was formerly used for production is transferred to learning and familiarisation. Am reluctant to call this time wastage because eventually after people adopt, production is boosted if the change was well calculated.

Productivity may be affected if there's no good communication in the process of initiating the change. Actually, communication is the back bone towards the success of change initiation.

As I Finish...

We've discussed the seven reasons as to why people are resistant to change and I hope you can identify with one of those reasons above. I'd like to finish by giving my recommendations in handling any change that comes your way.

1. Always face changes with confidence that all is gonna be alright.

2. Find and gather enough information before you resist change.

3. Change is as good as rest so just take it. Interestingly, many changes endup being solutions to limitations we may be facing.

4. Life is about taking risks so never fear to take a risk.

5. Bank your time in following training and lessons

Hope this helps. If you have any comments or questions you may leave them below. If you like this information you may press the like button.

Cheers,

Paul.