Three Daily Mindset Shifts to Beat 'Change Fatigue'

If you've been feeling the weight of change and uncertainty lately, you’re not alone. 

Every headline, LinkedIn post, and newsletter seems to remind us that the world is shifting right before our eyes. It can feel like too much to handle—but ultimately, you’re the only one who can decide whether it overwhelms you.

I had a conversation recently with someone who attended one of my keynotes, and it reminded me what’s possible when you shift your mindset about the unknown.

This conference was for professionals in an industry currently navigating some pretty significant challenges and changes. I start every keynote by acknowledging that uncertainty is at the core of our human experience. Life will always feel like a roller coaster. Stress is inevitable. 

Uncertainty is a fact of life—we literally don’t know what will happen in the next five months, five days, or five minutes.

After my presentation, one of the attendees shared that he’d really been feeling the weight of that uncertainty. He’s someone who loves having a game plan—tracking data points and gathering as much information as possible—which makes it even harder for him to sit in the unknown. 

But the conference helped him shift his perspective. He said, “I’m walking away feeling excited, even though I don’t know what’s coming next.”

It was an incredible moment because he captured the most essential skill for navigating change: accepting uncertainty.

As high achievers, we’re wired to plan and prepare. But that also means we’re vulnerable to change fatigue—the exhaustion that sets in when we’re constantly adapting to wave after wave of change and uncertainty about what’s next.

The source of that burnout isn’t so much the change itself; it’s our tendency to spend our energy trying to control the uncontrollable. 

In moments of uncertainty, our planning skills can actually keep us from finding our footing. Your attitude and mindset are strategic assets—tools that can help you avoid burnout and find momentum amid change.

Here are three daily choices you can embrace to help you overcome change fatigue by redirecting your energy into productive action.

Daily Choice #1: Choose Curiosity Over Animosity

When we’re facing change—especially when it feels like the stream of it is never-ending and unpredictable—it’s natural to feel frustrated, disappointed, and overwhelmed.

Those feelings are normal, but they’re also not productive.

We’re all facing unprecedented levels of rapid change. You can’t control whether change finds you—but you can choose not to get stuck in the negativity that comes with it.

🌱The Shift: See Discovery as Your Path Forward

I promise, curiosity is your pathway out of cynicism. That’s how you begin to take productive steps forward. When those negative emotions show up, pause and ask yourself: How can I be curious in this moment?

Choosing curiosity widens your field of vision to see things that can be clouded by negative thoughts.

Curiosity helps you see problems from a new angle. When you’re curious, challenges stop feeling like personal roadblocks and start becoming neutral situations you can explore. It even opens the door to feedback and conversations you might normally avoid.

Staying stuck in negative emotions will wear you down over time and make every new change feel heavier. When you choose to Stop & Shift into curiosity instead, you open the door to productive action—and you start to see possibilities instead of losses.

🔑 Key Takeaway: Once you accept the uncertainty of the situation, curiosity is the fuel that moves you forward.

Daily Choice #2: Embrace Learning Over Knowing 

People often assume leaders are paid for what they know—the skills they’ve mastered and the expertise they bring to the table. So when you hit a major transition—whether it’s a company reorganization or a personal life change—your instinct may be to lean on the formulas and knowledge that served you before.

But in a period of change, leaning too heavily on what you think you know becomes a liability instead of an asset. When the rules are shifting, you risk getting stuck in old frameworks that no longer apply.

🌱 The Shift: Be Open to Knowledge from Unexpected Places

When you approach each moment believing there’s something to learn, you’ll discover new ways to adapt—sometimes from the most unexpected places.

After the first day of a conference where I was speaking last month, a woman came up to me. I’d spent the day before talking about the science of mindfulness, positive psychology, and neuroplasticity. I always include a guided visualization as part of my keynote.

She told me she’d gone into my session knowing a lot about neuroscience. Because of some challenges her daughter had faced, she’d been through a lot of 🧠brain training 🧠. She said she was tuned in and enjoyed my talk, but she also felt confident it was all stuff she already knew.

When she closed her eyes to do the visualization she thought, “Okay, well, we’ll see how this works.”

She didn’t expect what happened next. 

As she moved through the visualization, she suddenly realized something that had been holding her back in parenting her daughter. Because of the challenges they’d faced, she’d been parenting from a place of fear—but in that moment, she saw that she could shift and parent from a place of possibility instead.

What made that moment so powerful was that she came into the presentation open-minded but convinced she probably wouldn’t learn anything new. Then quietly and suddenly, something spectacular happened—because she’d been willing to open not just her mind, but her heart.

That’s the power of embracing learning. If something said at a professional conference can spark insight about a parenting challenge, imagine what you could discover from an adjacent department, a new team member, or a completely different industry.

When you lean too heavily on what you already know, you can burn yourself out trying to make every change match your established framework. Every challenge can start to feel like an attack on your expertise. When you stay open to new ways of thinking and learning, you never know when you’ll unlock something new within yourself.

No matter how much you think you know, there are always ways to expand your mind and heart just a little more. You might be surprised by where that takes you.

🔑 Key Takeaway: When you operate with openness, you’ll recognize the opportunities for learning and growth that appear every day.

Daily Choice #3: Manage Your Actions Instead of Situations

When change feels hard or out of control, it’s easy to start chasing every new thing that pops up. You pour all your energy into putting out fires and updating plans, and before you know it, you’re caught in feelings of powerlessness about everything happening around you.

Or you can choose to focus your energy on what’s actually within your control—your actions, your decisions, your mindset. Even if it takes the same amount of effort, directing your energy toward where you can make an impact builds momentum rather than burnout.

🌱 The Shift: Control What You Control

My son and I were talking recently about the nonnegotiable chores he’s responsible for—and his how his attitude shapes his experience when getting the job done. 

I told him, “You have to accept that you have responsibilities. But you get to choose how you experience them.”

I’m having this conversation with my teenager, but I also have the same talk with other adults. We all need reminders of the power we do have, especially when we feel powerless.

🗣️ If you’re feeling worn down and exhausted right now, choose rest.

🗣️ If you’re frustrated by what’s happening around you, choose to find an alternate path—one that doesn’t keep you running into the same wall.

🗣️ If you’re feeling disheartened, choose to engage and create change inspired by your own disappointment.

Step back from the problem, person, or situation stirring up those emotions. Instead of pouring your time into the source of your frustration, pause and ask yourself: What can I choose in this moment? Then channel that energy into a productive action instead.

Even if the change you need feels bigger than you can imagine, you can start. Every life-altering change begins with a series of small choices. So pick one small thing you can do to create that change in your life. What’s something you can do today?

But here’s the most important part: don’t stop at the planning phase.

When we make a plan, our brains get a hit of dopamine. We map everything out and feel energized and excited. But planning alone doesn’t move the needle.  The high you get from planning is like empty calories. 

The real fuel is taking action—that’s what actually creates change.

Hold yourself accountable for following through. If you need rest, don’t just make a plan to build it in—the plan itself won’t give you rest. You’ll only get it when you put that plan into action. And that is 100% within your control.

🔑 Key Takeaway: Preserve your energy by focusing on productive action instead of living in a constant state of reaction—or getting stuck in empty plans.

Your Mindset is Your Secure Foundation

Friend, it’s easy to believe that the answer lies in finding better strategies to fix the world around you. But unless you first build strategies to fuel yourself, you’ll burn out long before you make the impact you’re capable of in this ever-changing world.

• When you choose Curiosity, you change the questions you ask.

• When you choose Openness, you change how you learn.

• When you choose Accountable Action, you change what productivity means.

Your greatest strength isn’t your ability to build a rock-solid plan—because plans will always shift.

Your superpower is cultivating self-awareness to manage your energy and attitude day in and day out.

This week, take a look at your calendar. Find one upcoming moment—a tough conversation, a new project, or a situation that usually drains you—and make a simple commitment:

Instead of reacting out of habit, choose to engage in one of these daily practices.

• What new question will you ask?

• What unexpected insight could you explore?

• What small, restorative action can you take today?

That single choice is enough to start building momentum, beat back change fatigue, and redefine how you experience uncertainty.