When it comes to change, are you Team Annie or Team Helen from Bridesmaids?
Helen: “It’s funny how people change, isn’t it?”
Annie: “Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. Do people really change?”
Helen: “I think they do.”
Annie: “Yeah, but I mean like, still stay who they are, pretty much.”
Helen: “I think we change all the time.”
Annie: “I think we stay the same, but grow, I guess, a little bit.”
Helen: “I think if you’re growing, then you’re changing.”
Annie: “But I mean we’re changing from who we are, which we always stay as.”
Helen: “Not really.”
Annie: “I think so.”
Helen: “I don’t.”
We often hear that people hate change.
And yet we are in a state of constant change and adaptation.
Which is why I think Annie and Helen are both right.
We experience life as a continuous narrative.
We thread new thoughts, behaviours and identities into our existing sense of self.
From the inside, we feel consistent.
And that’s why cognitive dissonance exists.
When our actions clash with our beliefs, we often adjust the belief to protect a coherent self-view.
We explain it away.
But when change is external – new systems, new technology, restructures, new expectations – we can resist it.
This love of leaving things as they are even has a name: status quo bias.
So, maybe the real dividing line isn’t whether people like change.
It’s whether they feel in control of it.
But what about you?
Are you Team Helen – people change.
Team Annie – we mostly stay the same.
Or Team Bri – both are true?
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