What do you think of when you hear the word “Change”

I read an article a few years ago about how to get better at dealing with change. My take-away from it was “Don’t expect stability”. The article discussed research done in the 70’s at the University of Chicago by Salvatore Maddi, who studied employees at Illinois Bell. This was during the time that the phone industry was deregulated, and there were huge changes. Some of the staff members had difficulty coping, while others flourished. The difference was that the those who were “adaptive” decided to view all changes, whether welcomed or unwelcomed, as an expected part of life, rather than a dire deviation thought to be cruel and unjust. “Instead of feeling personally attacked by ignorant leaders, evil lawmakers, or an unfair universe, they remained engaged in their work and spotted opportunities to fix long-standing problems…” Maddi discovered that those who struggled with the changes were “consumed by thoughts of ‘the good old days.’ They spent their energy trying to figure out why their luck had suddenly turned sour. They tried to bounce back to a time and a place that no longer existed.”