The Only Real Constant Is Change

When I was interviewed for my first job in media my soon-to-be new boss asked me how I felt about change. My response was easy. I loved it. That was why I was sitting in his office. I was looking for change. I wanted a new direction. I hadn’t been in the workforce for very long but I was ready to pivot.

The quizzical, if not serious look on his face told me he was not one hundred percent convinced that my answer was honest or the one I thought I needed to say to get the job. After a pause, he told me that was good because the only constant in the world of media which at that time was limited to broadcast radio, TV, and print was the change.

The only constant was the change.

That made me want the job all the more. My twenty-something-year-old self saw change as exciting. At that age, the idea that change was anything but good and might also be accompanied by apprehension, anxiety, and even fear had not yet entered my young mind.

Change is not always by invitation

I have been thinking a lot about my first boss’s words these last few weeks as I packed up the place I have called home for the last five years to move to a new one. Change may not be the only constant in this world, but it is a constant.

There have been times when I have invited change into my life as I did in that interview in Philadelphia. I invited change when five years later I left that country music stationto join CBS. I am inviting change now as I write this trying to decide on which wall to hang which picture in my new apartment.

But there have been times when change was not by my engraved invitation. The last time I moved, five years ago, was because the owner had sold the apartment I had rented for twenty-two years. I had no choice but to move. When I left Time Warner in 2008 the change was not by choice. It was by corporate reorganization or so they said. Every time Apple updates its operating system I am forced to deal with the changes they claim are making my life easier. (Note: I am not convinced). Just this week a single phone call changed the world as I knew it.

Change happens faster than ever in today’s world

The United States is a country built on change. In a few short weeks, we will elect the 47^th President of the United States. GenAI is changing all of our lives as I type, telling me which word I should write, whether it is the one I want or not.

Change is constant and filled with uncertainty – even when you invite it in. Even when it’s the change you want. It’s messy. It’s emotional. It’s never easy. The unknown can bring anxiety and apprehension and occasionally make you forget to breathe and surrender to it. Adapt to it. Manage it. But you can’t always stop it.

You can run from the change, but you cannot hide

Life is much easier when things stay the same. There is nothing to figure out, nothing to get used to. But here’s the thing – nothing stays the same. Nothing. It’s what keeps the world spinning on its axis.

Even when the change is not welcome, it’s a new beginning. It offers us a choice. We can embrace the change or we can fight it. We can learn from it or we can let the fighting against it exhaust us. Either way – there is no getting away from it. The only real constant in this world is the change.