Shift from fearing change to leveraging it as a tool for success

Why Change Feels Threatening (And What to Do About It)

Change is inevitable. Whether in your career, leadership, or business, it is the one certainty that will always come knocking. Yet, despite knowing this, most people resist change, sometimes at great personal and professional cost.

Why?

Because change threatens the stability we have built. It pushes us beyond comfort zones, challenges our identity, and forces us to face the unknown. We fear making the wrong move, losing what we have, or stepping into uncertainty without a guarantee of success.

But here is the reality, avoiding change is not a strategy, it is a slow decline. Businesses fail when they refuse to adapt. Careers stagnate when professionals cling to what is familiar instead of growing. Leaders lose their influence when they ignore the evolving needs of their teams.

Jorge Loebl, founder of Revolving Change, captured this truth during a podcast discussion, “You have two choices. You change or you change. Either you are going to be part of the process of change, you are going to participate, learn to grow within, and maybe hopefully learn to enjoy it. Many of our clients do. Others will not, thinking they are not changing. They are, because everything else moves forward in their lives.”

Change is happening, whether we embrace it or not. The real question is whether we will control it or let it control us.

The Goal, How to Move from Resistance to Readiness

Instead of seeing change as a threat, we need to reframe it as an opportunity. The most successful professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders do not avoid change, they master it.

This article will help you,

• Recognize your resistance to change and why it holds you back
• Shift your mindset from fearing change to harnessing it for growth
• Learn a structured approach to making change work in your favor

Let’s break it down using our Discover, Design, Deliver (3-D) process:

DISCOVER, Why We Resist Change and How to Overcome It

1. The Real Reason Change Feels Scary

Most people are not afraid of change itself, they are afraid of uncertainty. We fear what we do not understand. When the path ahead is unclear, hesitation takes over, and we default to old habits, even if they no longer serve us.

Jorge explained this concept well, “When you ask people if they fear darkness, many people will say they do. And nobody really enjoys darkness. Why? Because the lack of clarity automatically makes you hesitant- makes you insecure. When, you enter a room that is dark and have never been in before, you are going to be disoriented. You do not know where to go. You do not know if there is an obstacle, if there is a pit, if there is something in your way. You do not know anything. The more clarity you have, the more you are going to be willing to modify the way you do things, maybe increase the speed at which you do them, or change to another path – another way of doing things.”

2. The Pain vs. Desire Factor, What Really Drives Change

People do not change just because they should. They change when the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of making a shift.

If you struggle with embracing change, ask yourself,

• What are the long-term consequences of not changing?
• What opportunities could I be missing?
• If I keep doing what I am doing for the next five to ten years, where will I end up?

Jorge described this reality vividly, “Pain is the ultimate motivator to change. If the emotional need is not there, then it is very easy not to change. If there is an emotional need which touches your heart, touches your soul, and you have this feeling that you really need to change, you will change. But if you do not have pain, how easy is it not to go to the dentist when you are out of pain?”

The key to change is not just understanding the benefits of transformation, but also recognizing the cost of inaction.

DESIGN, A Structured Approach to Adapting to Change

1. The Change Readiness Framework

To make change work for you, use these three steps,

• Define your Critical Success Factors (CSFs), What specific outcomes will define success for you?
• Identify barriers and enablers, What is currently stopping you? What resources or support do you need?
• Develop feedback loops, How will you track progress and adjust your approach?

Jorge shared his own perspective on this process, emphasizing the need to be strategic rather than reactive, “If I show you how much pain you are in today, because we do a diagnosis and we do an evaluation, we do an analysis of the operation, and if we show the behaviors and attitudes that prevail in a company and compare what is going to be like once we are done, you can see the sunshine, you can see the peace, you can see the harmony, you can see the satisfaction, you can see the motivation, you can see the results, financial, operational. Then you start to become willing to start talking about the steps it is going to take to get there.”

2. Leverage Stability to Minimize Resistance

Not everything in your life or business needs to change, only the elements that are holding you back. Identifying zones of stability (things that will remain unchanged) can make change feel less overwhelming.

Jorge explained this principle by saying, “Another issue, another aspect of what we do, is not everything needs to change. So understanding, and I call it zones of stability, understanding what does not need to change is as important as understanding what needs to change.”

By recognizing what remains stable, change becomes less of a chaotic disruption and more of a structured evolution.

DELIVER, Making Change Work for You, Now and Long-Term

1. Action Over Perfection

One of the biggest mistakes people make is waiting for the perfect moment. The truth is, change does not require perfection, just momentum.

• Start with small, manageable shifts
• Do not overthink, take the first step
• Adjust as you go, iteration is part of the process

2. The Reflective Lookback Exercise

A powerful way to track progress and reinforce change is to imagine looking back from the future.

Ask yourself,

• What if I had never made this change?
• Where would I be in five years if I had stayed stuck?
• What opportunities did I gain by choosing to embrace change?

Jorge emphasized this strategy, saying, “You can look forward at what the experience would be like once you solve it, but for me, one thing I find quite powerful is zooming out and looking backward. What will happen if I keep going down this path of not changing? What will my life look like if I continue suffering with this for the next ten years?”

This exercise reinforces the benefits of transformation and keeps you motivated to keep going.

Final Thoughts, Change is Not the Enemy, Uncertainty Is

Change is inevitable. But how you respond to it determines your success.

You can resist change and stay stagnant, or you can embrace it and create new opportunities.

Jorge put it best when he said, “Change is involuntary, very often, stepping on somebody’s toes is involuntary. It is not done on purpose. And learning to have and adopt the skills to deal with it is essential. That is what makes change dicey and dangerous sometimes and scary.”

The choice is yours.

Ready to Go Deeper? Read What’s Next for You

• For Managers: How Team Leaders Can Guide Change with Less Pushback
  Learn how to reduce resistance, lead change with confidence, and earn your team’s trust.
• For Entrepreneurs and Business Owners: How Smart Entrepreneurs Embrace Change Before It’s Too Late
  Discover how to turn uncertainty into strategic growth and stay ahead of market shifts.
• For Professionals seeking personal growth: How to Overcome Fear of Career Change and Growth
  Break free from stagnation with a mindset and plan built for long-term career confidence.

Go straight to the CORE with us:

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Change is not something to fear, it is something to master. Let’s get started.