Change Is the Force That Motivates Us

As a professional counselor, people talk to me a great deal. As I listen, I make connections to past behaviors and decisions they’ve made. I’m in a field that doesn’t tell people what to do, but rather serves as a tour guide through the ebb and flow of the problems and challenges of life.

Most of the time, these conversations revolve around change. Change is the force that motivates us in all directions — up, down, backwards, and forward. We are always changing, no breath is the same, and no day a copy of the last. Because as humans, each day we grow and evolve positively or negatively, and that is what this blog is about: change!

Wherever I have been, in all the capacities within the hospital and in my own practice, I reiterate — “it always comes back to change." Alcoholics trying to get sober, wives adjusting to losing husbands, a bewildered adolescent struggling with the revelations of growing up as their bodies develop. All of these scenarios are centered on change.

Not all change process results in crisis and trauma. Much is celebratory and exciting! Isn’t that one of the great motivators in life, to seek thrills and fulfillment? A rush down a ski slope is different from the daily walk to the subway, and such change is adrenaline charged releasing chemicals in the brain leaving us wanting more. Changes like the next hillside with new powder stretched out before us. The first time a girl and her new bike work in unison and off she rides embracing new freedom and accomplishment is a powerful change. The anticipation of such a lesson may have produced anxiety, but happily brought a thrilling outcome.

So what is the factor that makes change pleasant or a challenge? Well, that is where we go on the next installment on change.

Jack Hoffmann, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker at who serves in the capacity of Behavioral Health Director for Provider and Clinical Relations.