Which cycle is present for you right now: the seasonal, business, or school calendar? Or perhaps it’s the daily cycle of the sun and moon? Maybe weather is of greater importance to you, or the chronological or celestial calendars.
In business, this is typically the time of year to look forward and prepare for the coming year. How many sales do you need? What operational decisions are needed to meet the expected demand? All the questions that need answers are intertwined with budgeting plans.
The world has yet to return to “normal” as COVID slides closer to influenza and Monkey Pox emerges as the next threatening virus. Has your company reset expectations regarding how much business will remain remote? How many days will be required in the office?
How do all these variables leave you feeling?
The last three years have taken us in new directions. They have forced many of us to create new possibilities for how work can be done. Do you find yourself joining those seeing this as a change of course toward a new future, or are you yearning to return to the pre-pandemic days?
What has been disrupted is the normalcy we used to know. There is now an intensity in our communications, most easily heard in political conversations that have moved to extremes and away from collaboration. There is a foundation of fear because we perceive there are unexpected changes happening every minute. Do you feel this as well?
It leaves us feeling unsettled. Feeling that normalcy is lost and we are heading into an abyss is intensely unsettling and uncomfortable. The parallel theme is: “Just make it stop. I want predictable, routine.”
The truth is life is a collection of changes. Every second we age, the earth rotates, and the weather adjusts. However, what is in front of us now has shifted significantly. How often has your day stayed within your plan over the past three years?
Our careers are developed from how we adapt and interact with the changes of our profession, industry, and competition. Development plans are created annually to have us improve or develop our skills to deal with or minimize the effect of change. There was a certain rhythm to our lives.
The disruption from the COVID virus was beyond the typical range of changes we had been experiencing. Pre-COVID, we had been through an unprecedented period of growth in the stock market, the turn of the century occurred without implosion, and the rhythm of life’s changes had been relatively predictable. Now it can seem there is no such thing as predictability.
We will all deal with change, forever. Whether the new challenges in front of you energize you, or you yearn for the return to the ‘good old days,’ you will be dealing with change.
Recognizing this will help lower your anxiety level, opening yourself to the part of you ready and capable of seeing possibilities. Use the knowledge of constant change to guide you to what you want in your development plan. This will offer you direction for the skills you need to hone or acquire, thus expanding your capacity for thriving with the changes that may come.
Coaching, by design, focuses on supporting you to find your direction. Coaching provides a mirror for you; to help you consider what is important, how that can be applied to your current situation, and craft a plan to emerge in a life you love.
My coaching practice focuses on helping people find the life they love and then have sustained happiness.Let me know how I can be of help for you.
