Sometimes, yet, often, when we start to experience even the change we desire, disruption in our lives presents itself. Even a good change, the tides start turning, great gears start shifting, and gusting winds start blowing at the onset of a really wonderful dream that is in alignment with your present life. This can cause great commotion, unpredictability, even turmoil internally in our minds, and externally in our circumstance. As a result, we can get knocked off track, feel out of control, and forget that we must get uncomfortable in order to learn and build resilience. Otherwise, there would have never been movement, or growth toward self-awareness, understanding our capacity, and our dreams.
 
Well that has been me over the past few weeks. One of the most intense of my life in extraordinary and amazing ways, and not so good, all at once. It is with these unexpected events that can make us grateful to be alive, and remember that life is full of magic, if we allow and embrace the moving tides. In the past few weeks, my partner and I decided to move toward a dream of selling our little condo that we love, buying land, building a home, and working from a beautiful location that feeds our creativity and purpose. A dream that was supposed to be much farther out in the future. But life has a funny way of presenting opportunities when you surrender, and least expect it. We purchased land, did not expect an offer to be accepted so quickly, packed our condo in a week, put our place up on the market, and are in the process of moving our lives to a different state. In the midst of this, we got into an awful car accident, totaled our car (we are OK, and thankful to be alive), and my partner had a surgery due to a tooth suddenly falling out! The stress and pure disruption and exhaustion, and feeling out of control, turned into self-doubt and overwhelm, especially since we have never built a home, and giving up what we know. We started to question ourselves as to why we disrupted our seemingly simple lives, in the midst of a pandemic, and asked ourselves “why us” to get into a car accident and have a major surgery all in a week. This was the time, as a mindset and leadership coach, that I truly needed to pull out my tool kit to shift my mindset and generate the thought patterns and feelings that moved from self-doubt and overwhelm to gratitude, hope, and purpose. Slowing down, taking one step at a time, allowing for ourselves to regain perspective, asking for support, giving ourselves grace and rest, was what we needed to see clearly and get back to center. Then, we were able to move forward with clarity and prioritize what needed to get done with intention.
 
In the past, and especially this year living through a pandemic, there have been times when anxiety and fear have overcome and paralyzed me. I let fear and limiting beliefs guide my decisions, felt victim of a seemingly awful situation, and did not feel that I was in choice in how I could respond. I am grateful to have experienced an old paradigm for a brief period of time, so I could remember that we are human, and the strength is how quickly we can get back to center, and that I have the tools and discipline to shift my mindset. I work at surrendering to fear, and doubt, and know that I have to move through disruption in order to get to the other side.
 
In order to move, we must disrupt. To realize a dream, we must get uncomfortable. On the way, there will be unexpected events that throw us off center, but it is then we can remember, we are in choice in how we respond, and remind ourselves of the larger purpose. Even with unexpected and scary events such as the car accident and surgery, we are grateful that we are able to take advantage of the opportunity that we have worked so hard to create. We remember that when life throws stuff at us all at once, we can give ourselves permission to reset, choose how to respond, learn about ourselves, grow from the experience, build resilience, and develop deeper partnership through it.
 
Here is what I remembered in the midst of intensity. When we lose our footing, we can get ourselves back to center by: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
 

• Surrendering and let go of trying to control a situation

• Remembering that in order to move, we need disruption, literally and figuratively ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Articulating values, and purpose and look at the bigger picture ⠀

• Celebrating little victories each moment, each day, no matter how seemingly small ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Practicing gratitude each day ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Creating a discipline to quiet the mind, practice self-care, and to slow down in the midst of chaos⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Interrupting and disrupting negative thoughts and limiting beliefs in order to focus on more productive ways of seeing the situation through a new lens⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Remembering we are human, and give self, grace

• Letting go of trying to do it all, delegating, asking for support, creating micro-goals, prioritizing daily and taking one step at a time, versus trying to do it all⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

This takes focus and awareness of your thoughts. Believe that you have the capacity, and the ability to overcome, grow and transform. I love being a catalyst for transformation and helping others shift their mindset, live out their purpose, and help people confidently step forward to create their dreams. If you are interested in learning more about how to develop new thought patterns and belief systems for a resilient mindset, and to take action with more clarity, confidence and ease, I would love to support you. You don’t have to go it alone. Dream big, and together we can make it real.