You’re not a wimp if you’re willing to tame the lions and tigers and bears in your life. If you’re like most of us, you’re living with any number of the following challenges, and are doing your best to:
• Face coupling/uncoupling issues
• Live with injury, illness or disabilities
• Respond effectively to the needs of children
• Manage anxiety, stress, depression, fear
• Deal with anger, frustration, abuse
• Work through significant change/loss
• Modify defeating behaviors
• Boost your self-esteem and self-confidence
• Balance professional and personal life choices
• Make hard-to-make decisions
• Attend to lifecycle challenges
Did I mention the holidays, the economy, and election fatigue? (Just in case you weren’t overwhelmed before, perhaps you are now!!!) Don’t be discouraged! Nobody can do everything at once, and you don’t have to. Perhaps my COPING-101 model will help you muddle through during these turbulent times.
Communicate: Let loved ones know when you feel overextended. Let them know what you need and don’t need from them.
Organize: List everything that is competing for your time, and group items together in ways that make sense to you.
Prioritize: Sort your list by urgency and importance. Assign each item to a day in your calendar. Remember, not everything has to be done today.
Identify: Inventory your resources – family, friends, neighbors, and professional service providers. Figure out who can help you and with what.
Negotiate: Give something to get something. Ask for help. Be specific. Negotiate ways you’ll reciprocate. Give members of your support system the chance to practice some not-so-random acts of kindness.
Get to It: Do just one thing, and then the next. (Starting is usually the most difficult step.) Get ready to be amazed at how quickly you can dig yourself out of a rut once you make a plan and work it.
In the immortal words of Jerry Garcia (musician and co-founder of the ‘Grateful Dead’): “Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.” By the way, don’t forget to breathe! And, if the going gets too tough, enlist the services of a professional.
To schedule your first therapy or coaching consultation with Debbie Newman, call her at Working Relationships in Valencia 661-259-5986 or Encino 818-385-0550.