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7 Principles for Disordered Times
Change is inevitable, so focus on what you can control
We tend to live under the illusion that things are stable — and that when they aren’t, it’s a disruption from the norm. If the chaos of 2020 (and, so far, 2021) has thrown any truth into focus, it’s how much we crave a straight line. An orderly progression from point A to point B.
But really, as I tell my coaching clients, the norm is that things are always changing. There is no straight line. For better or worse, our lives move in cycles:
- Order → disorder → reorder
- Orientation → disorientation → reorientation
- Integration → disintegration → reintegration
The hard work is navigating the middle phases. The prefix dis, which all of them share, means asunder, apart, or into pieces. The question, then, is how do we go to pieces without falling apart?
The answer is simpler, and more attainable, than you might think. Here are seven principles for living through the most challenging part of life’s cycle and making it to the next phase with your well-being and values intact.
Focus on what you can control. There is a difference between worrying about a situation and taking productive action to change it. Whenever you catch…
