Coping with change
How I deal with change.
Cope with change by staying calm, adaptable and open to support.
Last weekend I encountered a butterfly, and some readers commented how it was a symbol of change. This butterfly also reminded me that this beautiful creation was a fragile and temporary life. Life is always changing, often those changes can be unexpected and those things that we tend to take for granted can be lost to us.
Change did come to me this week, to my business. Circumstances in three large business customers changed unexpectedly. Though I had not lost any of those customers, they presented me with challenges and uncertainties that changed my relationship to them. Change in life is rarely rainbows and happy smiles, more likely unexpected shocks, challenging and sometimes traumatic.
The first rule in dealing with change is to stay calm. If you lose your head you are going to make mistakes and cause more problems for yourself.
The second rule is to adapt to the change. No point fighting to oppose and control change. Better to flow with the change.
The third rule is call in support, a friend or ally to help you cope with the change.
Business can be like a chess game. What I now have to do is up my game play to the next level. I am hunting for additional customers, I am creatively improving and adapting my business processes to meet my new challenges.
Change is a fact of life, those that can handle change well are calm, adaptable and call in support as needed.
Good luck with your challenges at work. I try to view change and unexpected challenges as a growth experience it helps me to stay calm and work through it.
That is a good attitude. There is a blessing hidden inside every challenge in my opinion, just a question of seeing it.
I agree but have always had trouble conforming to the advice. More like, “When you are up to your neck in muck and bullets, it’s difficult to remember that you were meant to drain the swamp!”
Well it still helps to have an ideal while we muck through life and business as best as we can and know how to.one step at a time,one day at a time.,,,
It is an ability that has to be learnt, but once mastered it stays with you for life. You benefit of remembering in the calm to “drain the swamp”.
One should try to anticipate change… like approaching a corner in a car… them one goes with the flow… challenges are nothing more than opportunities to flow around such corners…
Well put!
Well said Bulldog. Embracing change as a process of life and as a challenge with opportunities hidden within is a good ideal to adopt. The ideal is great, in reality it takes a long time to adjustment the mind to
Reblogged this on LuciferianBlog.Com and commented:
It’s funny how change can affect our lives, at first we can experience pain if something familiar and safe is suddenly removed, and what has been changes into something else. The lesson to learn is that in nature nothing is permanent. Every mountain will ultimately decline, as the flowing water eats away at it, and forge new paths and divisions for every ice age. The butterfly is a beautiful symbol of life, change, and a reminder of the fragility of the moment.
You describe the lesson that the butterfly taught to me well: impermanence and fragility. Thanks for reblogging.
Coping with change today. Getting 40 cm of snow along with 100 km winds. Can’t call in support, no one is moving anywhere today!
Perhaps the support is family you can share your frustrations with and the people you can contact over the phone and internet.
I saw in the news the great snow blizzards that hit North America. I hope you coped well through this challenge.
Yes, thanks. Had the neighbour up with his tractor which has a snowblower and blade on it. The rest I shoveled. Only another month or so of winter!
It is great to have good neighbours. I am sure you are looking forward to the end of winter
I’ll say!!!
)
Thanks for the update on the butterfly event and your changes. Yes, I’ve accepted that changes are not always positive, but we do learn. I have recently ‘lost it’ when I felt threatened and pressured but back on an even keel know, because previously I have made errors/wrong decisions – or at least not well thought out. Thanks for the timely reminder! Good luck with your changes. Hope your new doors open soon
Hi Jaycm6, the changes roll through slowly upon their natural course. All seems to be moving in a direction I am happy with. Staying calm then managing the change is better than panic which causes bad decisions to be made.
I don’t like change usually, but sometimes I feel the need for drastic changes. Like moving to a different state or doing something completely out of character. I’ve got a lot of changes going on allready, most of which I didn’t initiate. I’m feeling somewhat trapped by them and would like to run away right about now.
*already* oops
I have occasionally taken such a drastic step like resign from a job I hated with no job to go to. It takes courage to do such a thing, and incredible stupidity. I had lucky breaks that got me out of a serious situation by doing that sort of thing, a strategy I won’t recommend.
Excellent post Alex!Typical you!
Thanks
I agree with the above comment. Just dropping by during lunch hour and catching up on blog reading – great post to remind me that challenges at work are best viewed constructively. I hope that your challenges are now resolved with the help of a few butterflies wings!
Slowly the challenges are transforming like butterflies into blessings.
Sounds good, send some of those butterflies my way this weekend please! Could do with some blessings!
Good luck
Great advise.. we often do not like change because we hold onto the familiar, When we have change in our lives it means we are experiencing something new.. and with that territory comes fear, for we fear that which we do not know..
Change has to happen.. or else we would be static.. no progress.. and often those changes are resisted because we fear that which we are uncertain of in our future…
Another thought provoking post Alex
Thanks Sue, change is how the universe spins, and it is through change that life is possible. Those who can let go of control and flow with change have a less troublesome life.