Our world is changing every day. New research is finding ways to make our lives faster, more comfortable and the world more accessible. We are using up the world's resources at a rapid rate and do not always look after nature and our environment in a forward thinking manner. The effects of El Nino (-rising ocean temperatures have had global impacts on weather patterns) have no doubt had an impact on all our lives in the past months – droughts, heat waves, shortage of annual rainfall, KwaZulu-Natal and Freestate provinces have been declared national disaster areas, water collection points are being set up at schools and community centres to distribute to the drought-stricken areas in our country...

With our ever-changing world, we need to move with the times to stay ahead of the game, keep our jobs, be productive or simply just survive. Change is facing us everywhere: be it in the form of electronics, the latest mobile phone, new medical information or just to keep our planet's resources alive and healthy. The world is changing at such a pace that the jobs our children will have in their adult life do not exist yet, have no job description and therefore the skills of these are an unknown entity and we are hardly equipped to prepare them for these.

Questions you should be asking yourself:

• What about your own life and where you are going?
• Are you quite set in your ways or are you open to change?
• Are you broad-minded enough to notice when change is needed in order to keep growing and moving forward?
• Are you able to recognize what it is in your life that needs changing?
• If things that you have no control over are changing around you, are you able to adapt?

A change means that you do something differently, instead of what you usually do. You have to discard your regular behaviour and adopt a new approach.

How are you at handling change? I do believe we are creatures of habit and most of us hate change. Habits are things we know how to do and we feel comfortable doing. As soon as we have to change something, we are taken out of our comfort zone. Immediately our anxiety levels rise – or are you the person that gets excited by the prospect of a new adventure? Which side of this equation do you fit in?? When last have you asked yourself if you are in need of change in any sphere of your life?

If you do struggle with change here are a few tips:

• Acknowledge that we are changing every day and acknowledge that it is a process
• Approach change with optimism and energy and expect a positive outcome
• Decide what you are prepared to change and for what reason
• Remember there really is so much out of our control
• Relax and have your end goal in mind, be it short-term or long-term.
• Keep in mind to live with purpose.

Take action. Live life, love life.