Five Steps to Manage the “Winds of Change”

In this blog, we share five steps to manage the winds of change in your life. Change is constant and it’s happening right in front of our eyes at an exponential pace. Fall is a season of transition from one season to the next. The air even smells different. It’s crispier, feels cleaner, and the sky becomes bluer. The vivid colors of the trees create picturesque scenery for us to enjoy. But it can also bring anxiety about what’s to come. The uncertainty of change can be debilitating, confusing, and even paralyzing to some people.

So how do we cope with the winds of change? Let’s go through the five steps to manage the winds of change in your life.

Step 1: Compartmentalize your life into two big “buckets.”

Let’s start, for simplicity, by making two big areas in your life: Work/Professional/Career and Home/Family/Personal. Then ask questions under each area that can help you define with clarity, what exactly are you experiencing right now? Unfortunately, often people experience multiple changes at the same time which complicates how you cope with the entire situation.

Step 2: Identify the Changes.

The next step is to list all the potential reasons as to why change is present in your life now. Make a list under each question that you posed in the first step. Then select or circle the answers (or reasons) to each question that best apply to your situation.

Below is an example of a chart with questions and reasons (stressors) based on the two big areas of life:

Step 3: Acknowledge that change is occurring.

There are many other questions that you can ask yourself to identify and clarify the type of change you are experiencing in your life. We only provide a short list of questions and possible triggers or reasons to help you get started. The next step is to acknowledge that change is happening in your life. Just this step will help you to understand your own behavior and help you know that “you are normal.” Change happens to everyone, but we can choose to cope with it in different ways to ensure a successful outcome.

Step 4: Accept the circumstances with grace.

As you can see, whether the change is negative or positive, it is nevertheless a change. And that change brings with it new stress that impacts each person differently. Your body reacts uniquely to the various stressors and your mind also copes with each circumstance different from others. Once you identify the type of change and acknowledge that it’s happening, the next step is to accept the situation. That doesn’t mean you do nothing and let life happen to you. It means that now you have clarity and can choose the correct course of action.

Step 5: Make decisions and act.

Identifying exactly what type of change you are living through is crucial to making the appropriate decisions. Once you decide what to do based on your options, then you act accordingly. There are always options and there is help so understand that you are not alone. It is difficult for most people to ask for help. But once you get over the fear of asking for help, that is an action in itself. And it’s the first step to continue the journey successfully. And remember that prayer and asking God to help you is also action!

Living life is difficult. And living life with the winds of change constantly blowing at us makes it even harder. However, don’t get discouraged. Change is normal and it’s okay to feel disoriented at first. It starts with your mindset and having a process to cope with change. First, identify the type of change, acknowledge that you’re going through change, accept it, and act on it. I hope these five steps to manage the winds of change encourage and empower you to successfully go through it.

What changes are you experiencing in your life during this season?

Marcia Malzahn is president and founder of Malzahn Strategic, LLC a management consulting firm for community financial institutions. If you enjoyed this blog, you can read more on the topics of Treasury Management, Enterprise Risk Management, Talent Management, Succession Planning, and Strategic Planning at Malzahn Strategic Blog page. If you’re looking for consulting help in these areas, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Marcia is also an inspirational keynote speaker and published author of five books: A daily devotional – Devotions for Working Women, The Fire Within – to help you find your purpose, friendship poems in The Friendship Book, also in Spanish El Libro de la Amistad (poemas de Amistad), and Bring YOUR Shoes to help emerging leaders with tools on how to lead. In her latest grandma baby book, Inside Your Mama’s Tummy, Marcia inspires grandparents to form a bond with their grandchildren. You can contact Marcia for speaking engagements through her website at https://crowning-achievements.com/ or email her at [email protected].

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