FreelanceCoach Blog

We all are facing at a certain moment a change in our environment. Can be a happy situation, from getting married, promoted, moving to your first house, or difficult, like losing someone close, breaking up with your partner, changing the city due to your work duties and losing the contact with all your friends, all these can be very challenging and cause you trouble if you don’t manage the change.

I recently moved to a new apartment and I was excited for this, the apartment is bigger, brighter, close to a park, just like I wanted and still after the move I was stressed. There were many things to handle, to organize and it looked like the transition phase will take longer than expected. Where is this going to be over? When can I enjoy my apartment as I was imagining?

My old routine with going to the gym and doing other activities was all of the sudden changed. The main focus became the apartment entirely as I wanted to finish it as soon as possible but still I wasn’t happy. I realized that I had to change something. I analyzed the situation and these are the steps I took:

1. Establish realistically when the current transition can end.

Tip: In my case, one week was enough. For other cases, can be month. See what works for you and your situation and note this timeline. If in time you need to adjust the timeline as you see that the transition may end sooner, do so. In case of a happy event you want to keep the happy situation as long as possible. It is normal and very understandable to feel this way; the ending of the transition period in this case means only the smooth, complete inclusion of this happy event into your life.

2. Continue with my routine. How much time do you need for your routine activities like, going to the gym, playing sports, watching movies, etc?

Tip: Restarting your routine activities will bring you back your stability. Clarify how much time an activity can take and how many times per week you want to do them.

3. Make a plan for the week. Incorporate the things you “need” to do, like in my case to work on the apartment, and also the things/activities you want to do, like have fun, meeting your friends, attending specific events, etc.

Tip: Once you start making the plan for the week you will see that it is easy to expand it to the whole month. This will give you clarity and confidence that you are in control of the situation and joy knowing that you are things/activities that you like coming up.

4. What else can I do to keep myself happy and positive?

Tip: Discover what activities are important for your happiness. Is it going to a park, going out for a movie or meeting with your friends? Would you like to meet new people? Put everything on a piece of paper and take action. Establish how can you do all these, when is the best time to do it and put them on your weekly plan from point 3.

5. Check at the end of the week the progress made. See what you would like to improve. Congratulate yourself for the progress!

To Your Happiness!

Anda Tudor, Life Coach                                                                                              July 12, 2011                                                                         

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