Blog | Personal development

Dealing with Life’s Turbulence

Identifying your level of turbulence and pressing forward with change

Last week, I wrote about the difference between turbulence and problems . I talked about how everyone of us will experience turbulence at some point in our life. It's simply a fact of life - especially for those of us that are trying to do something of value.

When you decide to change your world, especially your financial world, then turbulence will usually rear its ugly head, and, if you're not careful, it can prevent you from doing what you need to do.

According to Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, turbulence appears when we commit to "any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity" - in other words, long-term positive change, which is what it takes to become financially free.

Different levels of turbulence

We all experience varying degrees of turbulence in our lives. They range from:

• Bumps in the road which slow us down, to
• Flat tires that can stop us in our tracks, to
• Head-on collisions that require time and attention to heal, to
• Life-threatening, or perceived life-threatening, events that take tremendous spirit and courage to get through.

It is interesting to see that one woman's head-on collision may be another woman's bump in the road. A woman who has experienced very little turbulence in her life may see a broken toe as a major negative life event, where another woman who has been through many ups and downs may consider it as a simple scratch along the way.

Be aware that the size of your task, your mission, and your goal is directly proportional to the magnitude of your turbulence. The bigger your goal, the greater the turbulence you will likely experience.

How to deal with turbulence

You've been hit with turbulence of some form and degree. What do you do?

First, take a deep breath.

Second, ask yourself, "What happened?" What exactly is the turbulence you're dealing with?

Third, ask these questions:

• What can I do now?
• Who can I call now who knows more about this than I do?
• What information do I need and where can I find it now?

Fourth, of the various options you have, decide which action you will take now. Then ACT!

Asking these questions and acting immediately accomplish two things:

1. It puts you in action, which puts you in control.
2. It avoids creating a problem, and useless worry, for you to continually dwell upon.

Note: If, because of circumstances, you cannot act now, decide what action you will take at the first moment available.

Change brings challenges

When you commit to improving yourself, making your life better, and actively going after change, you will shake up the worlds of those closest to you if they are resistant to change.

Those who don't like change may feel very uncomfortable, sometimes threatened, when they see someone close to them actively doing things to improve their life. What is really happening is that your action is reminding them of what they are not doing. You are moving forward, and they are not. This creates tension and stress within them. So the resistance you may experience from those close to you really has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them.

So all I can say to you is: Shake up your world! Rock your world! Go ahead, and make those around you uncomfortable. You're actually doing them a favor. Meet turbulence head-on. Deal with it, and move on. Yes, it really is rising time!