What To Do When Your World Is Changing

The world is changing at an incredible pace.

A new president, new technologies, new ways of relating to people, bringing about new opportunities, but at the same time, new problems and threats.

There will always be change.

But what do you do, when the change disturbs you, rattles you, and threatens to make life worse for you?

 

Focus on what is clear

I remember when we had to move to a different house.  I was really shocked and disturbed.  What would happen?  Who would be the people there?  Would me and my family still be all right?  Would I have rotten neighbors?

All these questions, coming from uncertainty, a changing life.

More so now, with all the political issues, hate and division running rampant.

All these questions about the big change running through my mind, affecting me negatively, clouding my thoughts.

When I begin to experience that confusion, it’s a way of telling me that I’m too much into the picture, and I’m allowing outside news to interfere with my thinking, and to affect my emotions as well.

Take a step back to focus on what is clear to you in the moment.

Not assumptions, future events, interpretations of past experiences, or what you think might happen.

Focus on what is clear.  What happened, and how you feel about it.

It’s easy to get lost in the mix, to be too much in the details.  You’e got to pull yourself back, look at the big picture, and clarify what you’re seeing in the situation.

This way, you’re focused on what’s important for you with what’s happening, and not letting yourself get lost in the little details that tend to fill your every waking moment.

At the heart of change is all the same elements.  Something happens, we interpret, and we make a decision based on our interpretation.

If we focus on what is clear in the moment, we clean up and allow for a more favorable and helpful interpretation of the situation.

The clarity we gain, allows us to make a better decision moving forward.

Don’t get lost in the many details, focus on what is clear.  Even for what you’re feeling.

What is clear to you about what you feel, and how you’re feeling?

 

Ask the right questions

Questions are powerful.  They focus our attention, and get us thinking about answers.

When I closed down my two businesses, I found myself asking the wrong questions.  Questions that further brought me down, and reinforced my beliefs of failure and lack of ability.

“How could this happen?  Why couldn’t you make it work?”

“Are you really cut our for business?  Why are you such a failure?”

“How could you be so stupid and unsuccessful?”

Of course, I was able to find an answer to all those questions.  I may not have liked the answers, but that didn’t stop me from believing them.

Instead, use the right questions not to bring yourself down, but to push yourself up.

“What can I learn from this experience?”

“What did I do right that I can continue?”

“How can I be successful the next time around?”

“How can this change be beneficial for me?”

“What can I do to make this change work for me?”

Use questions to find answers that will push you up.

Answers that will keep you going forward.

 

Keep moving forward.

I had the experience that when there were too many things changing in my life, I would freeze.

Analysis paralysis.  I would not make a decision, out of fear of making a mistake.  The pressure of having to make the best-est, rightest, solid-est decision I could make.

Which of course, never happened when I was just sitting still, waiting for the right timing to happen.

And by right timing, I meant that I was waiting to be fully calm, prepared, ready, and feeling good, before moving forward.

So then, I never did move, for a long, long, time.

Even though change is happening, our lives keep on going.  There is no freeze button for time, it just keeps on ticking.

Keep on moving forward, focus on what is clear, and important to you, keep asking the right questions, and make decisions and take action.

Don’t get stuck.

Move forward.

 

Get uncomfortable with the uncomfortable.

How we deal with change, is about how we deal with our feelings and thoughts about uncertainty, insecurity, dependency, and effort.

Back then, I was looking for certainty, but never found it 100%.

There is always something changing, something new.  Both for good and bad.

And it was me who would decide and say whether it was a good thing, or a bad thing.

I was the one making my own allies and enemies.

There will always be uncertainty, whether we accept it or not.

We can choose to either be insecure about our abilities to handle change, or find ways to be able to thrive and flourish with it.

I found myself becoming dependent on certainty, and on other people, when I wasn’t focused on what was clear, and where I wanted to go.

I even caught myself becoming dependent on the very change that I hated.  I was wishing, hoping, that things would again change for the better.

But then, without effort, I would not be making any steps forward, and I would not be improving my life.  In the face of change, effort and action allows you to make headway against the negativity and uncertainty.

The only way to grow, is to grow what you’re comfortable with handling.

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

 

Change is constant, but you shouldn’t be.

There will always be change.

But it’s up to you if you want to change.

As with all things in life, if you’re not growing, then you’re dying.

Growth is the only thing that will keep us alive, getting better and better each day.

Growth is change.

And if you grow, you’re changing too.

 

How do you handle change in your world?  Please share in the comments below!