Making change in our personal lives can be one of the most challenging experiences we can undertake. Diets, exercise, health, career changes, friends and finances can be viewed as positive change or negative setbacks.
Life’s long and winding road can be stunningly beautiful and filled with joyful adventures. It can also be filled with drama, trauma and pain. We hold the key to which path we take by our intent to live life with joy or with struggles. Which do you prefer?
Given that change is inevitable, what can we do to handle change effectively and positively?
- Accept change as a fact of life. Change will never cease; it won’t go away. We live in a world that’s decreasing in size and increasing in pace. We must simply acknowledge that changes happen and accept that fact.
- Commit yourself to lifelong learning. Given that change is constant, then we must be willing to consistently learn new things. This allows us to feel in control of the changes.
- Get healthy and stay healthy. To keep stress from getting to us, we must stay physically healthy with proper nutrition, enough rest and regular exercise. Karate provides excellent physical and mental exercise.
- Look at change as an opportunity. Changing our attitude about change is one of our best management tools. Look for opportunities in every change in your life. Rather than digging in your heels and resisting change, allow yourself to flow with it and see where it takes you. Look for the positive in change.
- Develop and maintain a strong network and support team. Many changes in our lives require us to lean on others for emotional support and/or advice.
- Eliminate the tolerations in your life. Get rid of the little irritations (and sometimes the big ones) that drain your energy – energy you need to manage change. A toleration can be something as simple as a messy or cluttered room or a desk or more significant.
- Engage in relaxing and/or stress reducing activities. Take some time to restore your energy cells. Karate is a great stress reliever!
If changes cause minor inconveniences in our lives, don’t sweat them – deal with them in a positive manner. Surprisingly, the effort to grow and change often results in new opportunities. Things we never considered are now possible and even desirable.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead