When Change is Coming – Part 3

With Baccalureate under our belts and my firstborn’s graduation coming in just days, the topic of change in my blog the last 2 weeks is exactly where I’m living. We certainly have a big transition ahead in the Conlee household. But don’t be fooled. As I stated in my first blog of this series, the enemy uses any type of change to try to take us out. Big changes or little changes, good transitions or tough transitions… he’s not particular. He just knows there’s a great opportunity to trip us up.What’s the change you’re looking at in your life right now? New schedule at work? Moving to another side of town? Kids coming home for the summer?Check out my last two blogs to see how you can prepare yourself spiritually, mentally, and physically for the changes ahead. Being proactive is the key to navigating any transition.[bctt tweet="Being proactive is the key to navigating any transition."]Before we put this subject to rest, there’s one more key component to successfully making it through a season of change. We’ll call it…Lullaby HealthBy nature, transitions can often overlap; you’re ending one season while beginning another, resulting in having even more to do. Additionally, change itself usually drains us. Emotional, mental, and physical energy are involved, leaving us tired… which makes us vulnerable.Our tendency might be to burn the candle at both ends… a little more than usual. Let me encourage you to be aware of this trap. It can turn into a dangerous cycle that often becomes what literally derails us during the season of change.We stay up late to get a little more done. In exchange for the fraction of productivity, we end up fatigued… and all the other areas of our well-being suffer: we’re not mentally sharp to deflect the lies, so we end up giving them more attention than they warrant; we’re too tired to work out, so we don’t; we wake up groggy and miss our time with the Lord.Force yourself to turn off at a reasonable hour. As Vince Lombardi said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all…”[bctt tweet="If you’re approaching change, please adjust your expectations of having superpowers."]If you’re anticipating a change in your world, please do yourself a favor and adjust your expectations of having superpowers. This is the time to acknowledge reality – you are not Wonder Woman. As a teenage boy, my husband got to kiss Linda Carter (the real Wonder Woman) in her prime. We even have pictures to prove it… which means you aren’t her! I digress…Decide what you can’t do. Maybe you need to go for easy meals for a while. Perhaps you ask a friend or your mom to pitch in a bit. Don’t tell yourself the lie that your friends don’t want you to ask. They actually do because they know they’ll need some help in the future, too.So, make a plan. The question isn’t: Will change come? The questions is: Will you be prepared for your next change? With just a few steps of preplanning, you can play offense and allow whatever transition is ahead to be better than you expected!