Want Change? Start With Patience!

“Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” – Richard Hooker 

I couldn’t have said it better myself! As you know, I’m all for making changes to better our lives and businesses, but I have to admit that in the past 2 weeks my tolerance levels have been sorely tested. I’ve had to relearn patience skills and there were times that I’m sure my perseverance quotient on a scale of 1 to 10 was at -20. 

I’ve been restructuring my business to better reflect the needs and desires of my valued clients. Consequently I’ve spent the last few weeks going over new designs, changing my website content, and doing a complete overhaul of my collateral. After jumping more hurdles than a sprinter at the Olympic Games, last week I finally hit the ‘wall.’ Nothing seemed to be working properly on my site and I found myself getting totally frustrated from juggling too many balls and putting out fires. At one point I even wondered why I was going through all this agony. I was not so lovingly reminded that change is great, but it definitely takes perseverance and patience to implement something new into your life. 

I’m going to share with you two techniques that I adopted to get through this transition phase and still stay sane. 

1. Just breathe. Phew! I’d forgotten about this one until I caught myself almost hyperventilating at the latest snafu. When overwhelm knocks you down, find a nice quiet place and comfy chair and let your body relax by taking 5 nice long, even breaths. Make sure you close your eyes and cancel out the chatter in your brain. After my little exercise, I felt rejuvenated and once again able to tackle the next breakdown ‘du jour’ and think clearly about what my intention was before things got a little crazy.   

2. Re-adjust your timeline, not your head. Remember that TV commercial where they tried to fit 20 or so people into a tiny compact car? That’s what happens when you try and do 50 things at once. Your brain is getting so many signals of what is a priority that it can’t figure out which one of the 25 tasks you’re trying to do is supposed to take the #1 spot. Setting deadlines is great to keep up motivated to reach the finish line, but there are times when we have to take a step back and determine if we need to re-adjust our timelines. When you find yourself unable to complete just one task due to your endless ‘To Do’ loop that’s playing in your head, then you know you have to adjust your schedule. As far as I know they haven’t discovered a 25th hour in the day, so be realistic in what you can and can’t achieve in your working hours. Plus when making that infamous ‘To Do’ list, make sure you prioritize it according to how much time is needed to complete each task. 

Running around like a chicken with its head cut off and tearing your hair out isn’t going to make your changes happen faster. All you’re going to achieve is a raging migraine and the need to visit your hairdresser to purchase a wig! 

Be patient with yourself, (and others), and know that everything will come together in its own time. That’s called perseverance – the knowing that all will be right with your world… just sometimes not on your timeline.