
I’m resistant to change and do not automatically embrace the new. Version1.0 is out? Thanks, I’ll wait for 1.1. So, this is the way we do the job now? What was wrong with the way we did it before? Sure, it’s a nice new car—it’s fast, looks great, like the price and all—but let me kick the tires first.
So, when I took a new job in January, I knew something about me was different. Younger me might contemplate the idea of change but there would be no follow through (autistics do this a lot, rooted firmly to the familiar, stuck deciding on something until it’s often forgotten.)
My guess is that I required concrete proof that the change was for the better, and if no proof was provided, no change. Well, this usually isn’t possible. Was going outside actually beneficial to my overall wellbeing? People said so. They couldn’t provide actual studies proving it, obviously, but younger me seemingly expected it.
Get a new job! I reasoned that the devil I knew was better than the devil unknown.
This is a classic example of fortress mentality, this thinking: set, solid, regimented, immovable, the drawbridge up, the gate down. Anything new, anything unfamiliar dare approach and boiling oil gets poured on it.
But the fortress can become a prison. And no fortress is permanent. The new supplants the old and things change regardless, but many autistics stay grimly at their post even as their situation crumbles into rubble all about them. I’ve often thought that because autistics react to change rather than enacting it accounts for much of their fear.
The former renders them helpless. Change is now forced. It takes on the aspect of a natural disaster, others imposing their will upon the autistic.
Change enacted is different, with the individual in some degree of control even if the outcome can’t be known—but it can be guided.
My first few months at my new job were rocky and I wondered—worried—if I’d made the right move.
Then change came again: I was offered second shift. I’d worked third shift for nineteen years at my old job, so this came as a surprise, and I needed time to think about it.
As it turns out, I didn’t need years or months or even weeks to consider, but less than twenty-four hours. And I’m glad I made the choice.
My advice? Leave your mental fortress. Lock the front gate behind you. You’re outside now, open to new things, new roads, new places to be. And guess what: the folks who advised you step out once in a while for your own wellbeing were right after all.
Mike Minnis is a guest blogger and client. His books can be purchased on Amazon. Visit his website at: www.michaelminnisbooks.com/index.htm