9 Best Tips to Handle Life’s Major Disruptions
Are you looking for ways to handle life’s major disruptions?
When I slipped on ice several years ago, I had no idea that was the day I would encounter a major injury, and my life would permanently change. I had no plans for that on my goals list, and it struck me hard. It was supposed to be a fun, leisurely run with one of my best-running friends.
Then, I ran into a major disruption. My first thought could have been that I shouldn’t have run that morning. But we can’t possibly know everything that will happen during each day.
Disruptions are part of life. Life is unpredictable and disruption is part and parcel of life. Look at the global pandemic, which came with job loss, physical and mental health issues, and an uncertain future.
Such disruptions cause a shift in mindset, overwhelm, chronic stress, a drop in confidence, increased anxiety, and other things if you let it. Learning how to adapt or shift is key to mastering disruptions.
If you’re looking for The Best Tips to handle life’s major disruptions, the following will set you on the right path to go through times of significant change where you need to find the best way to adjust, cope, and move forward into a new future.
9 Best Tips to handle life’s major disruptions
Change and disruption are an inevitable part of life. Significant events such as the birth of a child, getting married, and starting a new job or business are major changes and stressful events.
But we can plan for them and adjust our daily life accordingly. But disruptions are usually unplanned.
Life can be disrupted by minor disruptions like an unexpected visitor, bad weather, or traffic. Then there are significant disruptions that lead to times of crisis such as the untimely death of a loved one or a car accident. Such situations can cause feelings of anxiety, negative emotions, anger, and stress, and need us to manage a new trajectory of our daily lives.
When l got injured, I used to think to myself: What if I hadn’t run that morning? What if I lived on the defense and never took risks because I was afraid of injury or failure?
I may have had an intact ankle and not had to endure a year of pain and recovery, but I also wouldn’t have experienced the learning curve or lessons that have been major players in my life.
We can live on the defense and try our hardest to prevent injury, pain, or loss, but it just can’t always be avoided. Living on the defense is no way to live. That’s where paranoia and fear present themselves, and, unfortunately, even though the defense is equally important, we can never win a game if all we play is defense because the offense is what scores the points!
We win in the offense when we are willing to take the right risks, take action, and go after whatever it is we are striving for.
When we are living on the offense, this means the other team is naturally on defense and has to react to our actions rather than performing their own plays. The same is true when we live on the defense.
If we choose to live defensively, we don’t know the plays that are coming. Circumstances will hit, and we won’t be prepared for them. When on offense, we can formulate plays or a strategic plan to get through the barriers that come our way.
So how do you cope with new circumstances? The following tips provide some guidance.
Take time to grieve the loss in your life
What disruption are you facing today? It can be a loved one’s unexpected death, the sudden loss of a job, a major accident, a plan or relationship that didn’t work out, or the discovery of chronic or mental illness in the life of someone you love
The first step to handling disruptions is to recognize the deep sense of loss you feel. It’s important to go through the process of expressing your feelings and emotions whether that’s anger, frustration, despair, or sadness.
Suppressing these feelings will not help as they can resurface in the long term. Talking to people in your support system and people who care about you or seeking professional help through a professional therapist is a good idea.
Prayer helps in the healing process
In the face of significant transitions, talk to God. Be honest about what you feel. Things may not change instantly but your attitude and mindset will change. Ask God to give you positive feelings of hope and inner peace.
Along with prayer take time to journal and read the Bible. There is so much healing in doing this.
Reframe how you view the disruption
One of the best tips to handle life’s major disruptions is to adjust your frame of mind and see things from a different viewpoint. If everything in life went according to plan and we had no disruptions, our lives may become predictable but boring too.
Yes, that injury halted my life, changed my daily routine, and also dictated what I could or couldn’t do, but I would say it’s worth the risk.
I don’t purposely put myself in situations where I know injury is inevitable, but if I were to take myself out of all situations that could bring injury or failure, then my life would be uninspiring and unfulfilling. I’d miss out on the little things, the learning and growing moments, the beauty in life.
I learned that building up a positive mentality is important in my training as a runner but it may even be more important when injuries come. A nagging pain or a full-blown injury can create the same negative impact if we don’t know how to control our emotions or mentality in those times.
Think about disruptions that have happened in the past or in the Bible. There’s Job, Joseph, David, Ruth, Moses, and many more who went through difficult times. These disruptions accomplish God’s purposes. He allows disruptions to grow and mature our character and faith in Him.
Even in the midst of a crisis or disruption, open your mind to learning, exploring, and taking advantage of the opportunities and lessons that are in new situations. This is what C.S Lewis, a famous Christian author, professor, and theologian once said:
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life — the life God is sending one day by day.”
C.S Lewis
Readjust your goals and priorities
The major injury l went through taught me the importance of adjusting priorities, goals, and dreams. I had running goals to achieve but had to postpone them and focus on my health and being strong again.
In tough times focus on the next step and the important things that you need to accomplish that season. Be gentle with yourself and give yourself grace. It’s not business as usual.
Ask for help
In the face of significant life disruptions, reach out and ask for practical help from good friends and family members who may just be a phone call away. It can be taking your kids to school, bringing meals, or helping with chores or errands.
Explain what you’re going through and ask for different ways they can support you. Usually, those close to you will ask and if they do please be honest and allow them to help.
This can be on a short-term basis until you’re able to cope and adjust again to your new circumstances. Treasure these personal relationships because they will sustain, support, and uphold you in tough times.
Understand that you can’t control everything
This may be a hard truth for some of us to acknowledge. We don’t know everything and therefore can’t control everything.
The days leading up to my major fall were rather warm for December, so we all soaked up that warmth on our runs. What we didn’t know was that it had, indeed, gotten cold enough the night before to freeze the puddles that pooled on the trails. The light snowfall covered the pavement so we couldn’t see the ice that lay beneath our feet.
Naturally, our tendency as human beings is to get down on ourselves and feel like a failure because of the disappointment disruption (in my case injury) brings.
It’s easy to spiral down into a mini-form of depression when we can no longer do everything we were able to. We question, “Why me?” Or like I did, question, “What if I had only chosen to run inside that day?”
The sovereign God is the only one with a view of the past, present, and future. He is in control. God knows all the details of our lives and we can trust that he has plans for us. Everything that happens will eventually work out for our good.
Take the right risks
Because life is unpredictable and most of what we go through is uncontrollable we have to learn to take the right risks. Precautions are good, but we have to be ok with failure or injury.
When injury or radical change happens, we deal with it. In the face of disruption, do you find yourself playing not to lose or are you playing to win? Did you know those are two different things?
If you’re playing not to lose, you’re going to be cautious in every play, and you will be less likely to risk more to gain more. You will hold yourself back rather than doing what you need to win.
Rather than being on the offense, you will wait to react. Trying not to lose is a reactionary response. You will react based on what is brought your way. It’s also all about doing everything in your power to prevent injury, failure, being hurt, or being disappointed. You will do everything in your power to prevent yourself from losing.
If you’re playing to win, you’re willing to take chances on risky plays, and you’ll have to make tough calls you may not want to. You play aggressively rather than reactively and work to put points on the scoreboard.
Playing to win is authoritative and brings empowerment. You have the belief inside knowing you CAN do it. This mindset is intentional, and in it, you create ways to move forward because you’re proactive in all you do.
Practice Gratitude
Keep a gratitude journal. No matter what you’ve lost, you’re still here and there’s so much that’s still going right in your right. You have been blessed with so much. In the face of unplanned radical change, and times of stress, gratitude keeps us grounded in a significant way.
Adapt to the new situation
Disruptions can have a significant impact on your life and you become a different person or your life starts to go in a different direction.
Instead of becoming bitter, ask God to guide you in the new shifts and new contexts so you can accept it and adjust to it. You’ll be surprised, that this disruption could lead to bigger things for your personal life.
As a human being, it’s important to realize and remember that life is unpredictable and disruptions are inevitable. They can be minor and major disruptions that completely change the course of our lives but it’s all part of God’s plan.
These 9 Best Tips to handle life’s major disruptions and manage them set us apart from the rest in both our professional lives and personal lives. If you’re playing to win in life, take the right risks, have gratitude, pray, be present in your life, and deal with everything head-on.
Accept radical change as part of life and know that with time, you will adapt to the new circumstances and everything will work out for you.
