Parts of my life are very regimented. I have checklists for my checklists. I do things in order of importance, methodically, thoroughly… being sandbagged while I’m knee deep in my process often makes me anxious or even angry. It’s not that I can’t handle switching gears or expecting the unexpected, I would just rather take time to reshuffle instead of completely switching gears. I guess you could call me anal, but I know that I have a hard time being flexible sometimes. I know how I want to get from A to B and that’s all that matters. But in life, which is already a true balancing act, we all need to learn to be flexible.
Another easier said than done situation. How do we face it? Well, when you do feel like life is sandbagging you, don’t react. Just wait a beat and think about it. How far is this throwing you off your path? What can you do to deal with this new information and then get back to your process? Is this even important enough to take your focus off one thing and put onto another? These are questions that I ask myself when I feel like I’m in a game of dodge ball with the world around me.
Our ability to be flexible will impact our happiness. The more you can let water roll off the duck’s back and go with the flow, the more calm and less anxiety you’ll have in your life. Of course this doesn’t mean that you should bend over and take it all the time, but eventually you will learn when to keep your regimented process and way of life and when to give yourself wiggle room. I think a lot of life, love, work, and personal life is about our ability to bend… to be flexible. We should learn to be flexible because any time something is thrown at us, out of the blue, we might not be able to handle it. That’s no way to live.
