Happy Wednesday Friends! The week is almost half over and I am looking forward to a fun weekend filled with friends and family.
Today I wanted to share with you a little bit about handling change and how absolutely awful I am at it. The idea came from The Sits Girls and their monthly writing prompts. Every now and then I check out their prompts to see what fun things that have suggested and for some reason this one just struck me as something that would be fun to talk about.
Have you ever had someone call you stubborn? Well I have. And often. Honestly, it used to bother me at first, a lot actually, when someone called me stubborn, but I have started to realize over the past year or so that sometimes being stubborn is not a bad thing.
Over the past few years, I have had some major changes in my life. Like MAJOR. Some of them I have talked openly about on the blog while others were a little more personal and not something I wanted to talk about on the blog because, well, I did not want to deal with what was happening.
For as long as I can remember, I have hated change. It would make me very upset when someone would change things on me at the last second. I mean, how could they? Do they not know that I was counting on things to happen one way and they are not? And it felt like a giant inconvenience that they were changing things on me at the last second. I mean, I was so set into my routine that I would be frustrated when someone scheduled a meeting when I was planning to leave work at that time.
Talk about stubborn, right?
Well my hatred of change has caused me a little bit of grief over the past few years and I realized that something had to change (ironic right). So after spending some time reading articles on how to be flexible and open to change, I came across this article from Psychology Today and decided that I would start putting this into practice.
So here are the 5 "P's" for Responding to Change:
1. Learn Patience Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Things will not happen overnight and you will be happy you practiced patience. Feeling anxious? Do not try to rush the results - good things take time. Make it a point to find a good place where you can be patient while still working toward change.
2. Be Persistent Have you heard the phrase "consistency is key"? Well this is true here. As mentioned above, it takes time for things to change and the best thing you can do is to be persistent in your pursuit. Just keep pushing forward, the change will become apparent before you know it.
3. Be Practical While change is a good thing and is something to be celebrated, also remember to find balance between your life and your goal. Find ways to keep yourself in the present so that you are able to focus on what is right in front of you and not dwell on what is out of reach. This will help you keep a steady focus on what you need to do.
4. Be Positive During any change, there will be ups and downs. When you are in the downward slope of change, remember to stay positive. Being optimistic will help the drops and climbs not feel as staggering.
5. Have Purpose While undergoing any change, always find one thing that keeps you grounded. Are you making this change for yourself or for others? Focus on the "why" of the change and you will find a purpose in your pursuit
No matter the situation - the loss of a friendship, the changing of jobs, fitness goals - these will always be applicable to any situation. And they have helped me build a better way to handle changes both big and small. And hopefully they can be helpful to you as well!
Question of the Day: How do you handle change?
I'd love to hear from you!
This was a great post topic.
ReplyDeleteMy parents moved me around a lot as a kid, so as a result (IMO, anyways), I hate change. This year has brought a LOT of changes for me too, both personally and professionally, and it's been an adjustment. I liked this part a lot too:
"4. Be Positive During any change, there will be ups and downs. When you are in the downward slope of change, remember to stay positive. Being optimistic will help the drops and climbs not feel as staggering."
Good advice to follow :) thanks.
I don't think change is easy for anyone. Although sometimes change can be good. I'm not sure I have a difficult time with it though. I've gone through some major life changes and there will be more to come. I just have to trust that better things are on their way!
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