Knowing how to cope with change

  • Published
  • By Tim Litherland
  • 48th Medical Support Squadron
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Change...the only other constant in our world aside from death and taxes right? I'm sure most of you would agree there's been a lot of change around our Air Force lately.

I went through a major life change about 21 months ago, retirement. I never really realized how lucky I was having a uniform to wear until I had to buy civilian clothes and figure out what to wear to work everyday.

Unfortunately, some Air Force families have situations to manage that can't be solved by shopping for new clothes at the base exchange. A minority of our blue suit family even choose to deal with change by consuming too much alcohol or engaging in other questionable personal choices. They try to avoid change by not dealing with it or by drifting along with their lives hoping the change that's bothering them simply goes away.

It's a stretch to say everyone should embrace change. Sometimes change is forced upon you and you're simply left to deal with it whether you want to or not. So, since we know change is inevitable the question is how do we cope with change? There are several ways we can do this.

Family, friends and supervisors are great resources to help you face and cope with change. We're also blessed to be in an organization where in addition to these personal resources we have a dedicated life skills and chapel staff to help support us. I realize not everyone has close family ties or even a friend that they can share everything with so if you're not comfortable speaking with your supervisor, first sergeant, chief or officer in charge, commander...life skills or a chaplain are there for you.

Remember - don't suffer in silence. As much as we wish it weren't so, sometimes you have to spell it out for those around you that you don't like your new assignment, you're afraid to retrain, or to tell your significant other you'll be deployed for the holidays.

Adapting to your new situation is another way to cope with change. Like you, once I'm settled into a base, a job, my surroundings, I'm not interested in change as I'm very comfortable where I am; thank you. You can adapt to your changed environment by rising to the challenge of a new job. By completing additional training or furthering your civilian education you'll up your game and reduce your stress level. This approach also builds your confidence further helping you to cope with change. It's also important to remember that no assignment, deployment or duty lasts forever...even though it  doesn't seem like it sometimes. Adapting to and accepting your surroundings will help the time to pass and will soon move you along to that job, assignment or goal you're really after.

Overcoming change is another way to cope. Sometimes our expectations are set too high or low and require adjustment. It's a rare Airman who can make chief at 14 years in service...it can be done but only by a very select few of overwhelmingly talented individuals. If you're supervising a troop who is having a difficult time completing their career development course, a more realistic goal for them would be to get their 5 skill level first instead of concentrating on a promotion that lies in the distant future. Just like the Promotion Fitness Examination study guide says--goals must be realistic and obtainable. You can overcome your poor pretest scores by buckling down, getting a study partner. Similarly, you can overcome your anxiety about retraining or a permanent change of station to an "exotic" new northern tier duty location by learning everything you can about it. Taking charge of the situation will help you overcome your fear and apprehension of those life changes coming your way. By adjusting your attitude and focus you'll match new and old customer, supervisor, mission and commander expectations. Staying customer focused not only helps you overcome change but also improves your job satisfaction. This also helps reduce the stress that inevitability accompanies that PCS, promotion or new job.

By coping with change appropriately and not ignoring it, even though you don't embrace change, you'll be able to control to a large degree how change impacts you. The worse thing you can do is ignore change. Wishful thinking about retraining, that upcoming assignment or job change you were "volun-told" to take or a change in home life conditions have to be faced. Failing to deal with change creates a dangerous situation that could result in a much more serious problem than that next PCS.

Whether it's retirement, a new job or a deployment, if you feel that change is overwhelming remember you don't have to face it alone, your Air Force family is there to help you cope.