Being proactive
Active change is one of the most difficult things to do because it means that we make changes before we fully to have make changes.
We really don’t like change. We are creatures of habit. We like our weekdays and we like the usual. When it comes to active turnaround, we need to summon a certain amount of strength and faith that what we set out to do, we will succeed.
Proactive turnaround is about anticipating change, seeing that change needs to happen, and summoning the courage and strength to make that change.
We are often more used to crisis. This is when we must pivot – when things happen from a legal, medical, relational, or professional perspective that require our immediate, comprehensive attention.
Active rotation is different. It’s about anticipating change, seeing that change needs to happen, and mustering the courage and strength to make that change happen.
Loss Aversion
There are several fears and obstacles that can hinder us when we think about turning. We all have our place when the time of change comes – uncertainty or fear of failure, the unknown. Whatever these fears are, we all have them.
The science of loss aversion shows that even if the change brings us something equal or even little better than what we have now, we are still resisting.
There is also something that can hinder us, called loss of disgust. It turns out that even if the changes bring us something equal, or even a little better than what we have now, we are still resisting.
The of science points out that in order to make a change, we need to realize that what we are going for is twice as positive as what we feel now. Remembering that experiencing this aversion to loss can be very helpful to us in times of turning around – just being aware of this phenomenon and being aware of it can help us resist it.
A personal example of an active turn
Here is a personal example of an active turnaround that took place in my family.
My mom lived in Janesville, Wisconsin, where she was born and lived her entire life. She was 85 and decided to move to Dallas, Texas.
She was in perfect health and has four children. I’m the oldest of four and she decided to move before anything happened in her life that would make her change. She was very familiar with her community—she knew her neighbor, she grew up there, she drove a car, and she had a very good life there. But she was able to muster the strength to make big changes at her age. Now, four years later, she is still very healthy and very grateful to have made such a change so many years ago.
Deciding not to make a turn is also fine
Sometimes change really isn’t the right choice at the moment, and that’s okay.
We can understand what our current situation is, evaluate it, and perhaps determine that in the greater scheme of things, it is not time for us to turn around.
In those moments, we shouldn’t feel sorry or guilty because we haven’t really gone through it.
The key is that we consider turning when things in our lives indicate that it is best for our well-being, and when it doesn’t, we can gently give up.
As a rule, we are more experienced in crisis management than in preventive management, so it is not always easy to know what is the right thing to do in the moment. The key is to be compassionately present to ourselves in the process, including those moments when we choose not to make a change, or those moments when we choose to stay or move on and we are unsure.
Thinking carefully about your actions
Think of a time in your life when you took an active turn.
- What led up to the moment when you realized you needed to think about making a change?
- What did you do to prepare?
- What helped you decide?
- How did you feel about the changes after you made them?
- What were you most grateful for? What did you learn?
There is life to changeand change is constant. Mindfulness strengthens our courage because it helps us pay more attention to our real life as it happens, which in turn helps us to know when it’s time to change direction.
