As I continue my training as a professional lounger, I thought I’d share a blog I wrote about change. Although I’m getting better at “adaptation” I have to admit that adjusting to post-shutdown life has been tricky. Life was so much simpler with fewer options, wasn’t it?

That said, change is inevitable, as we all know, and when embraced it can actually be to our advantage. That’s the lesson I learned from my cable company.

Time for a Change

For six months I was annoyed by the message that kept popping up on my TV: Time to upgrade your equipment, please click here to order.

Our cable box was more than ten years old but every time the invitation to upgrade came on the screen, I hit cancel and continued watching my show. I didn’t want to deal with setting up new equipment, and I figured since I already knew how to use what we had, why create problems? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…

That was until the message showed up one day last week and, in my haste to delete it, I mistakenly pushed the wrong button and launched the order process. Frustrated with myself, I gave in and reluctantly completed the online form. Within two days, a big box magically appeared on my front steps just as our handyman, Larry, showed up to do some work.

“I’ll get that set up for you in no time,” he said as he headed for the living room.

Larry had the equipment working within fifteen minutes.

Later that night, when I picked up the new remote to turn on the TV (expecting to slog through the process of learning a new system), I was surprised to discover that the remote had a voice-activated button. I could simply tell the TV what channel to turn to, what to record, or what program to find, and it would do so immediately, correctly, and easily. No more messing with buttons or going through multiple steps. Just ask for what you want and get it. Wow, who knew?

Ok, I know I might sound like a dinosaur to some of you who have been using this technology for a while now, but have mercy. After finding favorite my shows within seconds and setting up new recordings, I shut the TV off and sat in the living room thinking about the experience. This wasn’t just a cable equipment issue, I recognized, it was about my resistance to change.

I thought back to how I labored over whether or not to try Facebook Live years ago because I assumed it would be too complicated. When I finally did use it, I discovered a helpful new way to connect with my online community (although it’s much more cumbersome now!)

A resistance to change is a resistance to life itself and who wants to resist life? My experience with the new cable equipment showed me that I needed an upgrade myself. My old operating system expected change to be hard, stressful, and overwhelming. But after my update, I now have a new program that expects joy and ease with change.

Well, that’s the plan anyway. I’m working on it and we’ll see how it goes.

Love,
Cheryl

© 2021 crystalwind.ca. All rights reserved.