10 Efficient Ways To Manage Changes
Routine. Comfortable, predictable, and reliable. Sometimes life throws us a curveball and we have to deal with changes and unpredictability. Managing change in life smoothly is a life skill. Check out these tips to manage changes.
1. Don’t Fight It
While your gut reaction to change is often to fight it, consider the opposite approach. If possible, go with the flow. The quicker you adapt, the smoother the transition.
2. Find The Positive
It might be a good change. Don’t focus on only the negative. Consider the good side. The benefits and new opportunities changes can bring. Looking at things in this light can bring positive emotion to change.
3. Create A List
Make a list. Once you have identified the changes that you are facing in your life, you can begin to devise strategies to take tackle what the changes bring. Create action steps. Plan out your action steps in writing.
4. Adapt On The Fly
Take an attitude of being fast to adapt. Whether it’s work, school, or other situations. Being fast to learn new technology, practices or policies makes you invaluable as an employee, student, teammate, or co-worker.
5. It Takes A Village
If a change happens within a group or community, everyone in the group is affected. Your actions and contributions affect the group as a whole. Try to handle change with a good attitude and patience. Your behavior may set the tone for the group. Don’t get sucked in by negativity, or panic in a group setting. Leadership from the bottom is a thing.
6. Focus On One Change At A Time
Keep it simple. Tackle changes one thing at a time. This makes things less overwhelming, easier to stay organized, and makes coping less stressful. Conquer one area of change and move on to the next task.
7. Have Patience With Yourself
Adapting to change takes time. Be patient with yourself and be kind to yourself, while you adapt to new routines, new rules, or new circumstances in life. One key way to support yourself through hard times of change is with positive self-talk. Self-supportive self-talk helps to encourage you and boosts self-confidence in managing whatever comes your way. For example, tell yourself, “I know you can do this,” “you are strong and capable, etc.
8. Focus On Productivity
Focus on productive actions. For example, consider what you need to do to facilitate the change. Think about what actions you can take for a smooth transition. Action steps and planning can go a long way to making change easier and more successful.
9. Take Control
Focus on aspects of change you can control. Adapt to what you cannot change and change the things you can to make your life easy, effective, and productive. Investing energy on things that you can control reduces anxiety and allows you to spend your energy in a constructive way.
10. Stay The Course
Change takes time. It’s hard to be patient. Stay the course. Don’t change your course of action. Wait to see the results of what the changes are before changing course.
Managing change can be uncertain at times. Use these tips to make the best out of adapting to life’s changes like a pro.
www.MelodyLouiseBass.com
Heart and Mind Balance
3 Ways Understanding Brain Science Builds an Inner Calm
What if someone told you that you could control your brain? Well, the good news is you can. All you need is some practice and a little bit of knowledge. Brain science isn’t rocket science (see what we did there?). It’s a skill that can be learned with time, practice, and patience. Ready to learn how to be calm under pressure? Let’s go!
- Understand “Fight or Flight”
You can thank your elementary school teachers for beating this one into your head. If you need a little recap, “fight or flight” describes how the body reacts in stressful situations. To put it simply, you either decide to flee the scene (flight) or take action (fight). On a fundamental level, this explains why you react a certain way to survive. However, “fight or flight” is irrelevant in a lot of scenarios in our modern world. Yet, our brain senses danger when we experience things outside of what is “normal.” If you feel your body tensing up, for example, that’s a byproduct of “fight or flight.” The next time you think you’re experiencing this, ask yourself, “Is this real life or death? Or should I calm down and realize it will be okay?”
- Call out your Emotions
Detaching from your emotions is prescribed by many meditation experts and leaders who have mastered the art of staying calm. We’re humans, so we’re inevitably going to experience the whole gamut of feelings. That being said, we can choose to observe them rather than attach to them. That means when you feel a surge of anger, call it out. Say, “That’s anger I’m experiencing because of XYZ. I know that this will pass, but I acknowledge that my feelings are valid.” Be sure to validate your feelings rather than dismiss them. Your emotions are real, and it is okay that you’re feeling them!
- Breathe
Sometimes, all you need to do is breathe. Connect to your breath. Count your breaths. Be grateful that you’re breathing. There are many ways to experience the delight of breathing, so take some time to figure out which approach works best for you. The important thing is that you’re doing it. As we mentioned with “fight or flight,” the body reacts to stress and adverse events. We may choke up, forget to breathe, or breathe super heavily. All of those things impact our mind, so try to instill a sense of calm in your body first.
Melody Bass
Transformational Life Coach
Illustration of a brain and heart inside it