The Contrarian Mindset - Facing the Fear of Change.

Change often knocks when we least expect it—and rarely when we feel ready. This week on BiteSize Fridays, we explore one of the most common and quietly limiting fears: the fear of change.

In this episode, I share William’s story—a seasoned marketing leader with decades of experience and deep confidence in traditional ways of working. When his company underwent a major strategic shift, it pushed him into unfamiliar territory. And like many of us, William initially resisted. Not because he lacked skill, but because he feared letting go of what he knew.

Through coaching and applying strategies from the Contrarian Playbook, William began to see change not as a threat, but as an opportunity—to grow, to lead differently, and to reconnect with curiosity.

William used these contrarian strategies to shift his mindset:

• Embrace obstacles as opportunities – reframing discomfort as the doorway to growth
• Practice courage – facing vulnerability head-on and acting despite uncertainty
• Focus on progress, not perfection – seeing mistakes as data, not failures
• Build social bridges – creating space for open dialogue, curiosity, and collective problem-solving
• Let go of fixed outcomes – focusing on action and effort, not rigid expectations

William’s journey reminds us that change is rarely comfortable—but it doesn’t have to be feared. With the right tools and a shift in mindset, we can transform it into fuel for leadership, innovation, and personal evolution.

Additional Resources:
Interested in building a contrarian mindset for resilience, fortitude, and psychological strength? Check out the other episodes in this series linked in the show notes, and subscribe to It’s an Inside Job for more insights on resilience, well-being, and personal growth.

Part 1 – Discover the Power of The Contrarian Mindset: A New Approach to Rewiring Your Brain for Resilience and Growth

Part 2 – Discover the Power of The Contrarian Mindset: A New Approach to Rewiring Your Brain for Resilience and Growth

This is Part 6 in a 15-part Contrarian Mindset series where we confront the fears and mental habits that quietly limit our growth—and learn how to think differently.

🔹 Part 1 – Facing the Fear of Vulnerability
🔹 Part 2 – Breaking Free from Perfectionism
🔹 Part 3 – Moving Through Imposter Syndrome
🔹 Part 4 – Overcoming the Fear of Not Being Good Enough
🔹 Part 5 – Replacing Reactivity with Response
🔹 Contrarian Skills Series (Season 7) – Start in January 2025 for deep dives into each mindset strategy.

Chapters

• 0:16 Introduction to the Podcast
• 1:42 Practical Tips for Everyday Challenges

Transcript

0:00

Music. Well, welcome to It's an Inside Job Bite Size Fridays, your weekly dose of resilience, optimism, and well-being to get you ready for the weekend. Now, each week, I'll bring you insightful tips and uplifting stories to help you navigate life's challenges and embrace a more positive mindset. And so with that said, let's slip into the stream. Music. In our last series, we explored the 12 skills of the contrarian mindset. Skills that challenge conventional thinking and help us build true resilience. But resilience isn't just about what we cultivate. It's about what we confront. That's what this series is all about. Over the next 15 Bite Size Friday episodes, we'll take a hard look at the fears and unhelpful mindsets that hold us back. The ones we all face but rarely talk about. For example, the fear of failure, the fear of vulnerability, fear of change or uncertainty, the fear of conflict, the imposter syndrome, or the weight of perfectionism. These fears don't just slow us down, they quietly shape our decisions, limit our potential, and keep us stuck in patterns that no longer serve us. Most self-help advice teaches you how to work around these fears. This series challenges you to face them head on. Because if we want real growth, deep, lasting change, we can't afford to ignore what makes us uncomfortable. Contrarian thinking isn't about being difficult for the sake of it. It's about questioning default reactions, breaking free from limiting beliefs, and seeing challenges from an angle most people overlook. So let's cut through the noise, break the patterns, and reshape the way we think, one fear at a time. One unhelpful mindset at a time. Music. Change sometimes shows up on our doorsteps uninvited, unwelcomed. But there it is. The question is, how do we react to change? Most of us don't like change. change brings uncertainty the unknown we don't know how things are going to play out and so there is a natural reaction and it's the fear of change and this can affect our mindset our emotions and how we either engage or disengage with life and so Jeff Bezos once said what's dangerous is not to evolve. What I want to do this week is to tackle and deconstruct the fear of change, to use that fear as something that can serve us rather than serve against us. And so the contrarian mindset we're going to focus on this week is about seeking out change as a space for potential, possibility, and opportunity. Now, as usual, I'm going to introduce the episode with a client. Again, I changed the name and the industry. So today I want to introduce you to William. Now William works as a top manager within the marketing field and he's been working there for about four decades. He is highly skilled in traditional approaches and is very comfortable with his familiar routines. And this comes to fact for most of us who've been in a particular niche for many years, if we count decades also. Now, however, when his company underwent the strategic shift, well, William faced a new challenge, requiring him to step out of his comfort zone. This change triggered a deep-seated fear, not because of a lack of professional competence, but because of his unease in deviating from known methods. During our coaching sessions, William recounted an experience highlighting his struggle with change. He was leading a project that differed significantly from his past work, And this deviation from the norm caused him considerable tension and uncertainty. These feelings were particularly evident during team meetings when new ideas were discussed, pushing William to confront his discomfort. Recognizing the need for a mindset shift, well, William and I worked together to reframe his view of change. We focused on seeing disruption not as a threat but as an opportunity for growth. This perspective shift was crucial for William as it allowed him to view discomfort as a necessary part of the growth process, which is essential for building any inner resilience. Now, as William began to think and embrace and enact on this new mindset, well, it became evident in his leadership style. He initiated brainstorming sessions that encouraged open and creative thinking. While initially met with some hesitation from the team, well, these sessions gradually became more dynamic and productive. People got used to it. It became part of their culture of how they interacted. Over time, William grew more receptive to new ideas and risk-taking, leading his team with renewed curiosity and innovation. A significant test of William's transformation came during a major project launch. Faced with unforeseen challenges, he applied his new approach to problem-solving. Instead of reacting with anxiety, William adopted a more proactive stance, viewing potential setbacks as learning opportunities. The project's eventual success reinforces belief in the benefits of adaptability and change. And then again, this speaks to the difference between knowledge and experience. When we take newfound knowledge and we apply it, it's the experience that teaches us. It's the experience that can shatter old, unused, unhelpful mindsets. Now, our ongoing coaching sessions, they played a pivotal role in his change of mindset. We explored practical strategies for fostering a growth mindset, if we can use that term. It enabled William to reframe challenges as opportunities for improvements, to see problems more as possibilities. Now, this contrarian approach focused thoughtfully and deliberately on embracing change and innovation. This shift in William's mindset had a ripple effect on his team. Inspired by his example, they began to embrace a culture of innovation and support. Colleagues initially resistant to change started recognizing its value, contributing to a more dynamic and resilient team environment. And again, this just shows that what people do on top, how they lead, how they manage, how they communicate, how they confront change, how they build resilience for themselves. Well, it goes much beyond what they do individually. It has a ripple effect that is contagious. And in a lot of ways, if we can take on a contrarian mindset to face change, challenge and complexity with more tenacity, more resilience, well, others will do that around us. William's experience underlines the importance of being able to adapt to change in today's fast-paced, sometimes crazy-speed environment. His story illustrates that embracing new challenges guided by focused coaching and a willingness to learn can lead to significant growth and success. His developmental path is an example. It's a pragmatic and practical example how stepping out of our comfort zone sometimes, you know, getting beyond the gates, the safe walls of the castle, and walking into the wilderness to explore, to discover. Well, with the right mindset and tools, this can lead to enhanced resilience and innovation in the workplace. Now, this shift in Williams' mindset doesn't happen overnight. It's not a light switch. It took conscious effort. It took consistent reflection and the development of new cognitive habits. But it was through our coaching sessions we focused on equipping him with practical strategies to support his change, his transformation. From resisting change to actively engaging with it. These weren't some sort of abstract ideas, but tangible skills drawn from the contrarian playbook. And these skills, they helped William reframe discomfort, build confidence, and lead with renewed energy and openness. And now what I'd like to do is share some of the key strategies he employed to make this shift stick. Embracing obstacles as opportunities. William learned to see change not as a threat, but as a space for potential growth. By reframing his perspective, by giving new meaning to the situation, while he could approach new challenges with curiosity and a willingness to learn. One of the major skills in order to do this is to understand that the brain looks at any situations in two parameters. Resources, this could be external resources such as money and time, or it could be our internal resources, our level of confidence, our level of knowledge and experience and know-how. What Willem was able to do through our coaching sessions was reinterpret the balance between resources and demands. when uncertainty showed up, well, the demands can seem very crazy of that situation. But by talking about the resources that he has, by shifting his mindset, by getting him to embrace change as something, as an opportunity and as a possibility, well, this dynamics between resources and demands of the situation, it changes. It moves from a threat to. To a challenge. Practice courage. Practicing courage is about understanding that we don't have all the answers. It's about confronting the fears. We can't stop emotions such as anxiety, worry, or frustration, whatever it is. But what we can do is decide what we want to do with that emotion. Uncertainty for many of us brings up the sense of vulnerability and we shy away from vulnerability because we think we are exposed and that's a weakness but if we flip it on its head we flip the script and we see vulnerability as an access point where we have courage and strength to face change well then that allows us to address our emotions these these uncomfortable emotions that show up sometimes by addressing those emotions we understand what the message is and then we can reflect on that message and then choose to act but that takes courage and that means about embracing vulnerability. And so over time, William developed a more resilient and adaptable mindset by consistently choosing to face his fears. Focus on progress, not perfection. William shifted from perfection in familiar tasks to seeking progress in new and uncertain situations. This mindset helped him and his team move forward without a fear of making mistakes because they were framed mistakes and foul-ups and mess-ups as data. Data to refine their approach, to re-engineer how they were attacking the situation, how they were moving forward through a challenge or a complexity. For them, mistakes meant learning, and learning meant evolving, and evolving allowed them to execute more confidently on actions and decisions. Practicing Building Social Bridges By fostering open brainstorming sessions and encouraging collaboration, cooperation, and communication. And that's something that I highly encourage with any team is to sit down. It's to talk about the change, talk about the anxieties, the fears, the worries, the concerns around that change. And when everyone sits around thinking about, okay, this is how I feel about it, but then shifting it towards what are we going to do about it? Well, first of all, part one, it allows everyone to normalize that, okay, what I'm feeling right now is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. And then when we shift it to what are we going to do about it, then we talk about solutions, possibilities, opportunities, and this action orientation, this investment of energy and thought into what we can talk about efforts and not always worrying about the total outcome or the fixed outcome, but focusing on effort. Well, it builds confidence and certainty of how to approach the situation, how to approach the change or the challenge. Letting go of fixed and desired outcomes. So just to riff on the last skill, you know, William learned to release his attachment to specific outcomes. It allowed him to navigate change more flexibly. In English, we say, kill your darlings. Don't get fixated on one particular permutation of a solution. Rather, it's about shifting our focus on what we can do in the here and now. What we can change, what we can affect, what we can influence. Where we can invest our efforts and actions. And yes, we have to look up every now and then to make sure we're headed in the right direction, but it may not always be the outcome we want. It may be a different permutation of that outcome because we all know that there are variables in play that we do not control. And there's going to be other variables in play that are completely unseen. And so to put all our eggs in one basket per se on one fixed outcome, Well, we're setting ourselves up for a lot of blowback and a lot of disappointment if that doesn't play out. For William and his team, this adaptability was key to managing the uncertainties that came with new projects. So as we come to the closing minutes of this episode, I'd like just to share some of my reflections. You know, William's path from relying on established routines to embracing change and innovation. Well, it provides a compelling narrative on the importance of adaptability and resilience in the professional world. You know, his story demonstrates that real growth often requires stepping out of comfort zones and into the unknown. And that might be having one foot in certainty and one foot in uncertainty. And it's actually here. It's where the brain likes it the best. It's surfing the tension between certainty and uncertainty. Now, Williams successfully navigated the challenge of change by implementing strategies from the contrarian playbook, such as embracing obstacles as opportunities, practicing courage, and focusing on progress over perfection. You know, his story shows us that the power of the growth mindset and its positive impact on individual and team performance. You know, Williams' change, it highlights that resilience is not about avoiding discomfort. But about using it as a catalyst for growth, development, and an evolution in our own mindset. You know, his experience, it reminds us that adaptability, a willingness to learn, and the courage to embrace new experiences where they are critical skills in an ever-evolving professional landscape. By choosing to view change as an opportunity rather than as a threat, well, William enhanced his career and inspired those around him to do the same. William's story reinforces that the key to thriving amidst change is to adapt, learn, and continuously seek growth opportunities. I think we all logically know that change is inevitable, but emotionally we're not always aligned with this logic. Part of the contrarian mindset is accepting, both emotionally and logically, that change is a constant, that it's always going to be there. But it's to see change as a possibility to grow, to see it as an opportunity, as a possibility. And by adopting some of the contrarian mindset skills, I think we all can be better at embracing and facing change, whether it's positive or whether it's negative. If you are interested into diving and exploring any of these cognitive skills that I shared with you today, you can go back into earlier episodes starting in January 2025 on Bite Size Fridays, where I do a deep dive and a dedicated episode to each of the skills. If you're curious to know how to build a contrarian mindset for greater resilience, fortitude tenacity psychological strength and a sense of well-being well you'll find the links to the other episodes in this series in the show notes so make sure you hit that subscribe button and i'll be back next week with my long-form conversational episodes on monday and the latest bite sites episode on friday and have yourself a relaxing and rejuvenating weekend. Music.