Originally posted August 18, 2008
Our team has been undergoing a few changes over the past couple of weeks. I am reminded that the only constant in life is change! We MUST remain flexible!
Change often leads to a sense of insecurity and uncertainty…especially, if it is not of our choosing How will this move affect me and my family? Gosh, things were just starting to go well, now what? There goes the income while I regroup and find a new path!
The challenge, again, is to remain flexible. Even if we don’t immediately see the benefits we can gain from the change, be assured that there is one if you’ll accept it.
I firmly believe that my Creator has a plan for my good. Each change, gargantuan or miniscule, has eventually led me further along that plan. What I have discovered in retrospect is that how quickly I realized that gain depended on my attitude and mindset.
For instance: My divorce after 24 years of marriage was devastating. My Pollyanna view of life and family was crushed. No longer were we living in the Cleaver house. I was no longer a Donna Reed or any other role model I had grown up with. I was unprepared to take a job outside of my home. I was never supposed to have had to support myself, much less my children! I wallowed in despair and depression. It was fueled by anger and resentment by his turning his back on our children also and my having to accept full responsibility for them. I was unprepared. I chose to accept the role of Victim for many years and it nearly destroyed me before I learned to climb out and face the world squarely and conquer it.
Compare that with our Katrina experience. Living in Gulfport, MS our lives couldn’t help being adversely affected. Yes, I was in shock. Yes, I relived the experience many times (we foolishly stayed). Yes, my home and property sustained some damage, ‘tho God’s protective shield kept the damage to a minimum compared to those around me. Yes, my income was immediately cut to 0. For a year, I traveled between Chattanooga, TN and home, rebuilding property and trying to reconnect with and reestablish my Interior Design business. I was also pushing full force into my network marketing business with NO success.
I could have easily slipped into the Victim role again. Who would have blamed me? Many people I know did; some are still there. Why didn’t I? I made a choice not to accept being the Victim. My mindset was Survivor. I continually strove to complete the tasks necessary to move our lives forward. I kept my focus on what we had and how we could build on that. I’d learned the hard lesson years before and refused to return to that state.
Traveling the Survivor path wasn’t easy. It meant daily focusing on and building on what we had and finding the opening doors. I had to be aware and flexible and remain positive. It meant consistently taking baby steps, and sometimes leaps of faith, through those doors. The result was that we were well on track and back within a year. The “Victims” I know are still wallowing 3 years later.
The moral of the stories? Accept change and be flexible. Look for and find the Golden Nugget in the change. Opportunity is everywhere. Then, build on it. Believe that there is a reason for the change and it is to redirect your path in a good way. By accepting the new direction and adjusting your mindset, you will continue forward motion instead of stagnating…or worse, sliding backward.
