In today’s article, we’re talking about the year of change. And by default, that also means it is a year of transition. For the last couple of years, we’ve been transitioning into and out of restrictions as a result of the pandemic, including lockdowns, working from home, social distancing, etc. Then we’ve transitioned into lifting some of those restrictions, such as schools and businesses re-opening. So, how do we cope with change without wearing ourselves out?
Use Growth Mindset to Cope with Change
These stressful couple of years of change and transition also mean we need to transition our thinking and adopt a growth mindset to cope with change – and that’s a big component in terms of surviving this.
I’m going to share with you a critical psychological skill we need to develop whenever it comes to coping with life changes and transitions and adopting a mindset shift. And these last few years have been such massive years of change.
As a nation, we were looking forward to the end of 2019 after experiencing bushfires, etc. In my career as a solution-focused psychologist, I had so many people share with me, “I just can’t wait to see the end of 2019,” and then along came 2020, 2021, and now 2022!
In many respects, it feels as if time has slowed down or the world has come to a stop – but time has continued to tick on!
Mental Skills to Cope With Change
So, when it comes to mental skills to transition our thinking to manage change, and manage change effectively, we’ve also had to shift from individual thinking to community thinking. We’ve had to learn how to manage change and make this shift away from “I” and “me,” and embrace the concept towards “us” and “we”. This is all about us.
We’ve often heard commentary such as, “we’re all in this together”. And in some ways, this has been a good thing, because it’s allowed us to raise our awareness and improve our mindset. But a question we need to ask ourselves is:
“How is my thinking and behaviour going to impact not just me but my family and my community, as a nation?”
Taking that one step further, we could look at it in terms of our attitude and aiming for the right attitude…
“How is my attitude going to impact not just me but my family and my community?”
It’s so important to ask these questions and undertake this mental skills training because they will have a direct impact in terms of our outcomes and results. And we’re all looking for better outcomes and better results.
Awareness Skills Help Cope with Change
I want to encourage people to embrace and develop the concept of awareness thinking. We need to ask ourselves:
“Is my thinking empowering, or is my thinking disempowering?”
We need to be able to check in with ourselves.
Life Skills for Coping with Change
I will share with you a critical life skill I teach in my psychological skills training program and as a practising psychologist that we need to develop (not just through managing massive change) but throughout our life. That life skill is developing our awareness skills. So, when it comes to managing change, we need to ensure that we’re developing our awareness thinking.
You see…
“All change begins within. It doesn’t begin externally. It begins within our own mind. And it starts with self-awareness.”
Because…
Self-awareness (if we develop it) will let you know if you’re on track or if you’re off track.
We’ve been going through massive transitions, and things have changed, and continue to change, moment by moment. And as we transition and experience change, we need to check in with ourselves regarding our awareness thinking and ask ourselves:
“Is my thinking empowering or disempowering me?”
And we want to aim to develop our empowering thinking, which starts with asking the self-awareness question above.
Self Awareness Will Help You, Your Family and Your Community
Continue to ask and answer the question; not just in terms of managing yourself, but also is it (your thinking) beneficial for your family? Is it beneficial for your community?
By doing that, you will start to embrace the concept of “us” and “we”.
Remember, “We are all in this together.” So, let’s work on it together. But in terms of doing our part, let’s work on our individual thinking.
May you have an on track day!