The art of adapting to change and why it's important
There has been a lot of change in this profession in recent years. The media landscape is no longer what it was 10 years ago.
I’m a creature of habit and have been for a long time. When I experience something once, or somewhere and I like it, I tend to keep going back. Say a restaurant, a supermarket, a mall, or even a brand and colour of lipstick.
I’m also the kind that is likely to order the same meal often when I visit a certain restaurant, and will find myself choosing to sit at a particular spot, and will be disappointed when someone else gets there first. For us introverts, familiarity is comforting.
One of my closest friends is a lot like me, and therefore tends to gravitate towards the same places, just like I do, which partly explains why we get along. This hovering around the same spot is so bad, the employees in the places we frequent know us from sight, and will say something like, “Naona mumerudi…” or “Heh, mmepotea sana…” as a way of greeting.
This consistent pull towards the same experiences perhaps has to do with my introverted nature, as you can therefore imagine, change doesn’t come easy for me. Fortunately, however, my nature is optimistic, and I am a team player, therefore once I am done briefly wrestling with the change presented to me, I wholly immerse myself into the new experience, the new way of doing things, go with the flow and get the work done.
Revenue streams
There has been a lot of change in this profession in recent years. The media landscape is no longer what it was 10 years ago. Revenue streams have been dwindling since the advent of the internet, and with it social media.
People no longer have to buy a newspaper or watch the news on TV to find out what is happening here or around the world. This news we have been selling and making a living from for decades is now available on the palm of anyone with a smart phone.
These changes have been devastating to the media, and in recent years, not a year goes by without local media retrenching journalists in an effort to keep afloat, even as media houses race against time to conform to new ways, (and channels) of reporting news and telling stories as well as avenues of making money.
Many of the journalists that have found themselves without a job have had to reinvent themselves and either look for new ways to earn a living outside their profession, or apply their long-running skills on other emerging channels to make money.
Success stories
Drawing from numerous success stories, and not just of my colleagues in the media, it is not impossible, it can be done, and yes, life does go on, and in many cases, it gets better.
But change in the media and embracing it is not what I specifically wanted to talk about, after all, it has been written about extensively. I wanted to talk about everyday change. Could be minor or major, but whatever category it falls under, there are only two ways to deal with it – resist it or embrace it.
Speaking from experience, resisting change is almost always useless, a waste of energy and time you will never get back.
Mourning the good old days is allowed, but only for a short period of time because if that change is there to stay, and as long as it is not unpalatable, resisting it will not make it go away. Fighting it or resenting it also makes the process more painful and more difficult to adopt.
The writer is editor, Society and Magazines, Daily Nation. Email: cnjunge@ ke.nationmedia.com
