\u201cReady for what\u201d you might ask?\u00a0 At any given time you could be prepared for various things \u2013 the need to adjust or even make abrupt changes \u2013 those things that life inevitably demands.\u00a0 While there are times that any change, even minor adjustments, can be overwhelming.\u00a0 This is part of life \u2013 whether we like or accept it.\u00a0 A valuable skill to develop is to learn to recognize what we can and cannot handle \u2013 at least at certain points in time, since this too shifts with different variables.<\/p>\n
Therefore for this moment \u2013 are you ready to work at getting organized? And it most definitely can be work.\u00a0 When we let things slide or we never learned the skills to develop and maintain an organized environment, it takes time and effort to bring your spaces into order.\u00a0 As FlyLady says, the state of your home didn\u2019t happen overnight and it can\u2019t be fixed overnight \u2013 whatever the actual state of things in your own spaces.<\/p>\n
And to be blunt, just because you are frustrated and overwhelmed doesn\u2019t automatically mean that you are \u201cready.\u201d\u00a0 And equally, it doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re not \u201cready.\u201d\u00a0 There are \u201cStages of Change\u201d or \u201cStages of Readiness\u201d people have identified that we all move through and among \u2013 along our individual paths.\u00a0 These apply to any changes we want or need to make in our life \u2013 from getting organized to any other changes we want to implement.<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 first items are taken from \u201cA ‘Stages of Change’ Approach to Helping Patients Change Behavior\u201d<\/a>; second items taken from ICD\u2019s fact sheet, \u201cReadiness for Change \u2013 Revised\u201d<\/a> (pdf link FS-010, second from the bottom of page)<\/p>\n Remember I also said we move among these stages \u2013 the idea of relapse \u2013 where we falter in making the progress we want, is moving to an earlier stage in the process.\u00a0 It\u2019s completely normal and simply means you\u2019ve encountered some additional challenges and can move back toward the progress you want \u2013 when you are ready.<\/p>\n Being \u201cready\u201d isn\u2019t a solitary, concrete event.\u00a0 It is moving through the process at your own pace, influenced by your life and experiences.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s all about you and where you are at within these stages. \u00a0Making changes is challenging \u2013 even when we desperately want to make them \u2013 hence that it is \u201cwork.\u201d\u00a0 Also it is rarely a straight line \u2013 making consistent, steady progress from the moment you begin to developing the skills in maintaining the change you\u2019ve identified.\u00a0 If you think about any change you have made and even those you set out to change \u2013 what was that process like for you?\u00a0 Likely, it was challenging \u2013 it took time and effort \u2013 especially initially.\u00a0 It quite probably required learning new skills, or how to apply other skills in new ways.<\/p>\n One of the best things you can do for yourself \u2013 as you embark on making changes, even with getting organized \u2013 is to give yourself permission to be exactly where you are in the process.\u00a0 You will likely not be right where you are now as time passes \u2013 moving through the stages doesn\u2019t necessarily require that you \u201cwork\u201d those stages, they can happen naturally.\u00a0 Lasting change comes from within \u2013 your own motivation or where you are within the process of making changes you\u2019ve personally identified \u2013 and being patient with the process.<\/p>\n Wherever you are in the process, whatever changes you want to make \u2013 you can begin anytime.\u00a0 Waiting until you are solidly in an \u201caction\u201d stage isn\u2019t required.\u00a0 Although you can also wait until you are ready for taking action.\u00a0 There is no one right answer \u2013 it\u2019s about you and what will work for you.\u00a0 And it never hurts to find support as you embark on the process of making changes \u2013 whatever that support looks like.<\/p>\n These Stages of Change can provide you with a framework for how we all process. This outline also doesn\u2019t address other complicating factors, which I\u2019ll talk about soon.\u00a0 It does illustrate what is typical for all of us \u2013 it\u2019s not as simple as flipping a switch and presto things are fixed.\u00a0 If only it were that easy.\u00a0 Hopefully it will encourage you to be gentle with yourself as you strive to make changes \u2013 whether that\u2019s getting organized or whatever other changes you want to make.\u00a0 Truly it is simply part of the process \u2013 even when it\u2019s annoying \u2013 it\u2019s still \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/p>\n What changes do you want to make?\u00a0 Where are you in the process?\u00a0 Are you taking action?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is an outline for the stages we all move through in the process of making changes \u2013 whether that\u2019s getting organized or any other changes we\u2019ve identified as a goal. It offers us a framework for where we might be right now as well as hope that we can shift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10,18,9,7,22,15],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personaldevelopment","tag-behavior","tag-goals","tag-motivation","tag-procrastination","tag-productivity","tag-resources"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-oe","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1509,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions\/1509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}