Embrace Change

Building a beautiful life starts with a dream, a vision, and a plan. We add things we want to do and eliminate things we do not want to do. Each week, we get closer to creating a life we are excited to enjoy. While we can control all these aspects, we cannot control what naturally happens – change!

I used to think that if I could just get all my “ducks in a row,” then my life would be just exactly as I wanted it to be. The problem with that thinking is that my “ducks” kept moving around. I became anxious and stressed.

Then it hit me. My ducks like to swim! I realized that no matter how hard I tried to keep things in order around me, I had absolutely no control over my ducks.

What are my ducks? My family and their schedules, my calendar and scheduled events or appointments, getting time to finish projects, spending time with friends, and basically everything outside of myself.

I decided that I needed to become friends with “change” because change happens every day. I may wake up with a plan and some sort of direction, but that does not mean my day will fall in place as I had hoped. By changing my mindset, accepting change, and going with the flow, I experienced an attitude of acceptance.

Change is inevitable.

We can either resist change or we can embrace it, but either way know that it will happen regardless of our attitude towards it. When we resist change or the things we cannot control, our body tightens. We may experience anxiety, worry, and stress. However, when we embrace change, we relax. We may feel calmer and less tense.

Change is neutral.

One important thing to remember about change is that it is neither good nor bad. It is simply different than what we had planned. The scary part of change is the not knowing the how or the why, but rather than trying to figure that out, just accept that it is happening.

Change is continuous.

Change is happening all around us and at every moment. As soon as we have an interaction with another person, we have changed. Our thinking has been influenced and so has the other person. We may read a book or watch a tv show and we are changed. Nothing stays the same. It is really kind of extraordinary.

Life can be exciting when we await unexpected things to happen.

Once I grasped the concept that change is happening continuously all around me, I found myself waiting for serendipitous moments. Sure, I am still a planner, a checklist guru, and a person who loves routine, but now there is room to be flexible and spontaneous. I have learned to embrace change and accept that it keeps my life exciting! 

Featured image by AARN GIRi on Unsplash.