"Change is inevitable!" When he shared this quote in a speech on a Reform Bill in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli was citing a centuries-old maxim about life and the reality that we, by happenstance or by choice, must confront for ourselves. Prime Minister Disraeli followed this quote up with, "Change is constant" as a way to help his audience accept what was happening in their country at the time of his speech. Today, more than one hundred and fifty years later we are still grappling with change and, many of us, are still not too accepting of this stark reality.

Over the course of my career there have been many instances where I was faced with change and confronted with the choice to either accept it or to fight it. The decision you make when faced with change is one of the only black and white choices you get in life. You either accept it, or you don't! Accepting change requires emotional intelligence because it can and will change the paradigm of your life.

Nearly 150 years after Disraeli's quote, Motivational Speaker and Author, John Maxwell added a new tagline to the famous quote. He said, "Change is inevitable, Growth is optional" which is to say that if you accept the change that you are confronted with you will learn from the experience and become a better person. 21st century America is grappling with changes, the likes of which Disraeli probably never fathomed but I'm confident his advice would probably still hold true today.

I've had a long career in sales and change has always been a big part of my life. Change, in a business setting, is typically used as a driver for growth. If you want to sell more blue widgets than you sold last year you must change your compensation plan to incentivize your sales people to sell more blue widgets. Change drives behavior and the acceptance of change drives revenue in your business!

I worked as an Account Executive for a cable company, and we did something that the cable industry, and our competitors, never did. We demanded 1-year annual contracts from our customers. Customer churn is a high in the telecommunications realm, and we wanted to grow our customer base. As our competitors began to see the success we were having, they began to demand 1-year agreements also and the paradigm shifted in the marketplace. In 2008 corporate rolled out a new compensation plan to the sales team and it was all based on a 3-year contract. Nothing less than 3-years was going to be accepted! I remember being shocked that they had demanded such a thing. I was emphatic that there was no way we would be able to sell our services on a 3-year agreement. My boss and I had a "heated" discussion about our new challenge, and we agreed to take time to ponder the situation and meet again later.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. As soon as I changed my thinking about the new mandate from a "how will I ever be able to survive!" to "How can I adapt my skills and abilities to be able to overcome this challenge?" I began to see the mandate in a totally different way. I embraced the change and developed a strategy and began selling and made more money. The key to overcoming change isn't to focus on what the change will do to you but how you can accept the change and grow.

Today, my Impact Deck (www.bestself.com) gives me an affirmation card that says, "I have the power to create change." In today's world we know that things are changing around us in many profound ways. Since March 13, 2020 we have learned that we can adapt to a changing world. We all know that the changes aren't complete and we still must manage a few more changes if we are to get back to normal, but if we begin by becoming a catalyst for change, then we will all be the better for it.
Gandhi was right when he called us to, "be the change you want to see in the world!" When you realize that you have the power to create change everything will change for you!