Navigating Seasons of Change

If you’re not satisfied with how well you navigate life’s changes, practice new ways of handling them, starting with the smaller ones. Rate your fears about an upcoming change on a 1 to 10 scale in the days and weeks leading up to it and again afterward. Do you see any patterns? Was your level of worry justified after the fact?

There are many mitigation strategies you can implement, including self-help or reaching out to family, friends or a professional for assistance. There’s no one right answer — and your answer may change depending on the issues you’re facing. The important thing is to keep trying different approaches until you find the one that works for you.

If there’s one superpower when it comes to being happy, it may well be knowing how to deal effectively with change. Because if you can relax more into the ebbs and flows of life, accepting change as a constant and not something to fight or excessively fear, you’ll find greater peace of mind — and likely more opportunities for personal growth along the way.

You may have heard the saying, “Life happens for you, not to you.” But that requires a mindset of embracing change — and it’s a mindset you can more easily adopt when you get better at handling change. Because then you’ll see more opportunity and less threat. It doesn’t mean, of course, that you’re going to love every change you encounter. Some changes are going to be harder to swallow, but it can help you find silver linings, when possible, even amidst the more difficult ones. When you learn how to embrace all seasons, you’ll be in a far better position to live a more peaceful, purposeful — and productive — life.