“EMBRACING CHANGE IMPLIES THAT YOU DON’T SEE CHANGE AS ADVERSITY, BUT AN OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP, TRY NEW THINGS AND WORK ON YOUR ADAPTABILITY.”
There are two kinds of change in life.
The first is planned change that you have had time to think about and prepare for.
The second is unexpected change that is often forced upon you by unforeseen events and circumstances you have no control over.
Humans often resist change simply because of the fear of the unknown and we get attached to the outcome we want.
Whether or not you’re comfortable with where you are in life, if you like how things are going or you don’t like to have to learn something new…it all boils down to the fear of the unknown because we don’t KNOW what is going to happen when things in life change, planned or unexpected.
I always considered myself pretty good at adapting to change. Growing up my family moved around a lot, I’ve lived in over 26 different houses in my 42 years of life, including a small stent of homelessness. I had to change schools many times and overall, I had always been pretty good at adapting to change.
At 25, the biggest change in my life happened, I got married! Then at 40 an even bigger change happened, I got divorced. The wedding was planned, the divorce was not expected. I didn’t want it, I was not adapting well, and I pretty much did everything I could to resist it.
It was very difficult for me to look at divorce with any positive light at all.
How was this change going to benefit me?
How could anything positive come from this?
Although I would never want to go back and re-live the hurt of that experience, that significant change in my life has actually impacted me in a positive way, allowing me to deal with unexpected change with a little more patience (I said a little) and acceptance.
THE SEASONS CHANGE, OUR BODIES CHANGE, OUR WRINKLES CHANGE, OUR JOBS CHANGE, OUR RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE.
Life is all about change. It’s the one constant and although it can be difficult at times, it is happening around us all the time. Unfortunately, there are some changes that happen you don’t expect, take you by surprise, and you have to look deep inside to find the positive.
If you look back on your life, however old you are, you will see different chapters and you can see how you aren’t quite the same person you were back then. You’ve changed.
The foundation of your personality is still there, but perhaps your hobbies and interests have changed. Your motivations are different. Your priorities have shifted. Your outlook on life is a bit different than it was at 18, 21 or 30.
When it’s you, you embrace this change naturally most of the time. You barely think about how you have changed because the progression is natural.
When it comes to other aspects of life that are happening around us, we tend to hold onto the version that we are comfortable with and fail to be open to seeing the positive that could come from the change.
WHEN YOU START TO GET OVERWHELMED BECAUSE OF THE UNCERTAINTY OF CHANGE, FOCUS ON THE THINGS YOU CAN CONTROL.
You get to control how you respond to situations in life, even if you didn’t ask for them. You can control how you are taking care of yourself. When you focus on the things you CAN control, it helps you prepare to lean into the discomfort that change can bring about.
Embrace the positive possibilities. Your life situation might improve because of the new changes. Even though it might take some time to adjust to, you’ll most likely see some positive emerge from the change.
Life will forever change around you. Allow yourself to grieve over a change if it was unexpected and is causing a huge shift in your world, like a divorce or a breakup. But also try to look for those positives, because there is almost always some positive that can come out of every change.
Remember, You Got This!
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XOXO
