In the 1990s Better the Devil you Know was a mega hit for Kylie. I can remember dancing to it at a work Christmas party and feeling ace—it was so much fun. But it was all about the beat. I didn’t think much about the words. Now I am.
In life, is it really better the devil you know? Or should we be hunting and embracing different devils?
It’s why we stay with the same bank forever. You know what you’re going to get. You’ve memorised your account numbers. You understand the products and services. You value loyalty. You can’t be bothered stepping out of a fiscal comfort zone.
I get that, but have always been a big fan of stepping out of my comfort zone and finding challenges. Until now. On the anniversary of my cancer diagnosis, I feel a lot of the time that I wish I was still the devil I knew for decades.
That devil is the person I was only a year ago. I miss her. I know her, and I don’t really know the new Julie very well. I know I need to embrace evolving into her, but it’s hard to leave the old one behind.
It’s a weird thing for a mindset coach and leader to admit, that I would love to go backwards to safety and familiarity rather than boldly moving forward, but sometimes change that isn’t our choice doesn’t work for us, in business and life.
Change is great. But it’s best to be in control of it.
A friend asked me who the new Julie is. She’s limited from what she used to be able to do. At gym, she can pull 7kgs instead of 42. She misses feeling strong. She sometimes finds it hard to see positives and is still going through the grief of having her life upended forever.
And there’s the lovely glimmer of light: that she still has a life. She’s one of the lucky ones. She’s just different now.
The message? It’s okay to feel that life is shit sometimes. It’s fine to choose the devil you know.