Sheila Lowe on Change
Sheila Lowe is the author of the Claudia Rose handwriting analyst and the Beyond the Veil series. You can find out more about her on her website, sheilalowebooks.com, or by clicking here, see her last post here, and find her books here.
Change is hard. For the past ten years, I have served as president of an international handwriting analysis organization. When I started in 2012, it was supposed to be a two-year term with one renewal. Suffice it to say, it’s taken a lot longer than that to find someone qualified and willing to take over, and believe me, I tried. And tried. Everyone seemed happy with my presidency (read that: nobody wanted the job) and I could have stayed in that position for even longer. Luckily, though, I didn’t give up looking, and finally found just the right person to nominate as my successor. But after being in the job all these years, and looking at all the meaningful accomplishments of my board of directors, it’s not easy to let go and hand over the keys to someone else.
That’s just one example, but the same is true in all areas of life. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Staying in one situation for too long can make you sluggish; you stop developing and can become dull. Have you ever walked close to a stagnant pond, where the oxygen level has dropped too low? Algae scums the surface and the smell is awful!
Change is scary. It means leaving your comfort zone. It’s easy to get into a cozy rut where things stay the same forever and ever. But breaking free and doing something different—shaking up that routine—can lead to opportunities you may never have otherwise seen.
Change is vital. Continuing to evolve allows exciting new ideas to blossom, gives new life to what we do at work, in relationships, in our writing. Some of us find it harder to make changes than others. We cling to what we know we are good at. A familiar framework keeps us feeling safe. As a handwriting analyst, one thing I look for is whether someone writes with narrow, squeezed letters, which can be a sign of fear of moving forward, or rounder letters and a decreasing right margin, which shows excitement for the future (See Sir Richard Branson's handwriting here). Making changes can take time and effort, but if you can push yourself to take the plunge, the scope of your life will broaden in ways you might not have dreamed of. Who knows what you might find?
Change is good.