5 Strategies to Easily Move to the Next Chapter in Your Life

Know what these things have in common? Moving. Retirement. New medical diagnosis. Job promotion. Marriage. Change within an ongoing health issue.
If you said they are all life transitions, you are correct!

With the end of one season of life comes the beginning of another season.

Whether expected or unexpected, welcome or unwelcome, temporary or permanent, life-altering circumstances always bring change.  And these adjustments are crucial in how we interact with our stuff, time, and tasks.

The problem is that most people underestimate the impact!

For some reason, people often believe that only one or two small aspects of life are altered when experiencing a change. For example, people know that when they move, there has to be time for packing and unpacking boxes.

What they usually forget is all of the other changes that need to be accounted for:

• With items in different places in the new house, simple tasks will take longer as you try to remember where your possessions are located.
• Previously there was a place to process mail right near where you entered the house. Now you have to deal with the mail upstairs. You have to develop a new routine.
• The nearest grocery story may not be on your way home from work anymore. Now you have to plan when and where you’ll do the grocery shopping since you can’t “just swing by” after work.

This is equally true even if it is a life transition you’ve been through before.

Yes, you may get better at planning extra time around a move since you’ve moved five times in three years, however, it doesn’t mean that you can disregard it altogether.

In 2012, I had my left rotator cuff repaired. Fortunately, it was my non-dominant arm. Friends gave me crucial information that the doctor’s office didn’t, and someone could stay with me for several weeks.

In 2021, my right rotator cuff had to be repaired. I had my list of items I needed from the previous surgery. What I wasn’t prepared for was the huge difference between surgery on the dominant vs. non-dominant arm. Eating and brushing my teeth are just two of my daily activities that took a lot more time, when using my left hand.

What happens if you keep assuming that life transitions don’t change other parts of your life?

Overwhelm. Frustration. Sleeplessness. Anxiety. It may also impact job performance and relationships with friends.

How can you minimize the stress when you’re experiencing a disruptive diagnosis?

Tour your space. Walk around your home or office as if you’re going through your regular routines. Note items that need to shift locations so you can access them more easily and routines that need to be altered.

Revise your calendar. You’ll have tests or medical appointments, so allow a generous amount of time for those, including the transportation. This means that other activities may need to be rescheduled.

Revisit non-negotiables. With everything that’s happening, it’s easy to let the most important habits slide. Yet, this is the time when you need those systems the most.

Make time for self-care. You need it more than ever. It can be short. It just needs to happen.

Eat and hydrate. When life spins out of control, it’s easy to forget to eat or drink water. Set up reminders if you need to!

Managing a medical diagnosis is not fun or easy.

However, it’s important to remember that:

You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep rereading the last one. – Anonymous

Minimizing stress allows you make adjustments to your life with a clearer head. Then you’ll be able to move from the previous chapter of your life to your new chapter (with a medical diagnosis) more smoothly.

 Need more tools to minimize stress while you manage your schedule?

Take a few minutes to download and read (or reread) my free resource: Top 10 Ways to Manage Your Schedule During a Life Transition.