2021: Creating a Lexicon of Future

C is for Change

Change is the thing people fear most, yet it’s the thing they most need.

The fear of change, or metathesiophobia, is a phobia that causes people to avoid changing their circumstances due to being extremely afraid of the unknown. It is sometimes associated with the fear of moving, also known as tropophobia. In instances of metathesiophobia, that disempowerment leads to strong resistance and a refusal to change solely out of the uncertainty that comes along with fearing the unknown. ~ I Fear Change: How Do I Cope with the Unknown?

Not only is change the new normal, it was accelerating even before the coronavirus upended everything. Long before the first case of Covid-19, employees had begun to experience this dramatic increase, weathering more change over the past five years than they had during the prior 50. Even before the pandemic, more than 90% of millennials, half the workforce, reported that they expect to stay in a job for less than three years. And one-third of all US workers have already performed some type of gig work. CEO turnover, too, hit a new record in 2019. Now, we are in the midst of a shocking health and economic crisis that has brought a new level of uncertainty. There will be no return to normalcy — at least, not as we knew it before. ~ The Power to Change