Is Fear of Change Keeping You From Your Ideal Job?

And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.

Exodus 16:3-4

Security can be imprisoning. The comfort of familiarity may be keeping you from new and brighter opportunities. Charles Dickens wrote about a man who had been in prison for many years. Obviously this man longed for freedom from his dungeon of despair and hopelessness. Finally, the day of his liberation arrived. He was led from his gloomy cell into the bright and beautiful and free world. He momentarily gazed into the sunlight, then turned and walked back to his cell. He had become so comfortable with confinement that the thought of freedom was overwhelming. For him, the chains and darkness were a predictable security.

For many people change is frightening. The sameness and predictability of what we have may be more comfortable than the uncertainty of change. Day after day people have feelings of being trapped in their jobs and lives. And yet, the comfort of at least knowing what is coming each day appears to be more attractive than the uncertainty of initiating change.

Many people have the "dream" of owning their own business. We hear stories about people who purchased a business opportunity, got into a Multi-Level Marketing program, or opened their own antique shop. Six months later they are begging to get their old job back. The challenges of being more independent, having to make decisions about inventory, managing employees, and dealing with new tax reporting forms have caused them to long for the old days—back in Egypt.

Remember those people? When the children of Israel left Egypt they were headed for the Promised Land. But a few days of passing through the desert (a necessary passage to the Promised Land) left them whining to go back to the familiar misery of slavery under the Pharaoh. Yet going through "the desert" is an integral part of getting to any Promised Land. Most businesspeople go through 3-4 ideas and "failures" before they reach extraordinary success.

The first step in creating positive change is to identify what you want. What would the ideal job be? What kind of people would you be working with? What skills would you be using? How would it make a difference in the world? Fortunately, you are not trapped in your job or life. You can choose to walk into new freedom—or you can choose to stay in your own private prison. Like the man in Dickens story, it's tempting to become "secure" even in negative situations. Yet freedom comes only to those who are willing to surrender the security of imprisonment.

You can't sail to new lands unless you're willing to lose sight of the shore. Do you have a secure prison that is protecting you, but perhaps keeping you from a new freedom?