The news that your life is changing always seems to come like a sudden bolt of nearby lightning.
It brightens the world around you in an instant, turning the most mundane of surroundings and the most routine activities into the backdrop for memories that will be etched into your consciousness forever. And then just as quickly, the instant of change is past and the darkness of an unpredictable future returns.
Over the years, the biggest changes have struck me in what seems to be life’s margin time: when I was putting on a pair of socks or refilling a diet soda. It has happened as I was looking for a parking spot, or when I was getting ready to pull a frozen pizza out of the oven. It has always come when I least expected it and summoned the most dumbfounded feelings of awe.
This is The Change Issue of SUCCESS. It comes at a noteworthy juncture in the magazine’s 121-year history.
If it wasn’t so big or so shocking, it wouldn’t be change at all. It wouldn’t represent the defining points of our lives. The older I get, the more I realize that life is change, and how we deal with it plots our course. No one can predict the future, but we can control how we prepare for the unexpected.
Rightfully so, this is The Change Issue of SUCCESS. It comes at a noteworthy juncture in the magazine’s 121-year history. You’ll notice some new things in these pages, while many others remain the same as they did in the last issue before our hiatus, released back in February. The deepest of those unchanging pillars is our commitment to bring you the best ideas, strategies and perspectives from the world’s leading achievers and thinkers. In this edition, they’re helping you to combat or harness change in your life, teaching you not to fear it as well as how to create it.
As someone who has experienced great change recently, when the magazine went through its shakeup, I want to give you the best remedy for handling the unforeseen that I have learned.
It’s gratitude. It’s always gratitude.
The gratitude I held for the teammates who have moved on ensured that our time together didn’t slip by unappreciated. If you truly appreciate someone, and let them know it, there is no need for retrospective regret when life divides you. And no matter what change may take from you, gratitude is the answer. Be glad for what you have remaining, and strive to make the most of it.
I am grateful that I still have the opportunity to share the timeless teachings of SUCCESS with you. I’ve never taken it for granted and I never will. I hope the stories we’ve built this issue around serve as a testament to that fact, and a guide as you navigate your journey, moving past all of the obstacles in the road.
It may not always be easy. But if you believe you’ll make it and keep going, you’ll reach your destination.
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2018 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
