You need to
make a major change in your life. Do you make it all at once, cold turkey
style, or incrementally?
Based on my
past, I’d make the change all at once, cold turkey style! It may take me awhile
to mull things over, to actually make the decision to go forth with a major
change, but once I’ve decided OR been presented with the opportunity I’ve been
looking for, I move fast.
Like my
granddaddy, who gave up his long “love affair” with cigarettes cold turkey the
day he found out he had emphysema, I don’t mess around with increments. It draws it out too long, in my opinion,
makes it more likely you’ll change your mind or compromise your “change” goal,
if you take it in steps. If you need to
make a change, make it, I say! What are you waiting for?
It’s similar
to the writing process for me. Once I
know the “topic” of change, so to speak, I begin thinking about it in spare
moments, “writing out” the change in my head, including the various ways it
could work, the options for how to make the change, etc…Sometimes I come to a
“block” on this one, and I decide no change is needed right away, so I pray,
put my life in perspective, and move on until that “I need a change” feeling
comes again.
Then, maybe
an opportunity presents itself or a new idea is proposed by a friend, a
situation, something I read, and the process begins again. Once I have the “change” processed in my
head, thought out clearly and with confidence, I move on it, “change” flowing
out of me like the words from my head when a piece of writing finally comes
together. If it’s the right time, then
the change is smooth just like the writing.
Changes are
ALL ABOUT timing. You may WANT to make a change, but it doesn’t always mean
it’s going to happen right away. Take my major life change to move from
Kwajalein to Washington, for example. I had been looking and applying for jobs
back in the states and/or in other spots overseas for several years, off and
on, before the actual move took place, just keeping all my options open. I felt a change coming when I first started
this blog site back in 2010. In fact, my first blog entry (if you care to go
back and read it) says that I felt it might be my last year on the island, and
I wanted to chronicle it before my “island life” ended. Turns out, I didn’t
leave for another 4 years. The timing wasn’t right until 2014. So, I looked for jobs now and again, applied
for ones I could see myself doing, then when those jobs didn’t come through, I
went back the drawing board, waiting for what God had in mind next, learning to
be content with staying on the island until I KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt
that God was calling me back somewhere else.
Sometimes
just the planning and looking for a change teaches you how to be content where
you are when you get that gnawing, “I need a change” feeling. Within months of starting my new job here, I
became unsure about it all, so I applied for a couple of jobs and even had 2
interviews, but realized in the end that I had “jumped the gun, “ and needed to
give this new change more time to see where it would take me. I believe it always takes a good year plus to
feel settled in a new place and job. Too bad I didn’t believe it enough for
myself a few months ago. As we near a
year here this February, I realize that I am exactly where I am supposed to be,
just like I knew a year ago that I was supposed to take this job and make this
move. I’m so happy I did! I don’t know when another change will be in
order or where it will take us, but I know that when it happens, it will happen
fast, and that’s okay! In fact, that’s how I like it, like ripping a Band-Aid
off a cut, getting it over with all at once is best!! J
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time
for every event under heaven—
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time
to build up.
A time to weep and a time to
laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to
dance.
A time to throw stones and a
time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time
to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to
give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to
throw away.
A time to tear apart and a
time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time
to speak.
A time to love and a time to
hate;
A time for war and a time for
peace.
What profit is there to the
worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given
the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything
appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that
man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to
the end. Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
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