Change – the pace of change is real!
None of us could have planned for COVID, protests, economic challenges, job loss, and alterations in services for our families. I know Mikelle, and I never thought we would be social distancing. Our focus has always been on being active in our community.
Mikelle and I have developed good skills for anticipating and dealing with unpredictable situations. Our ability to be flexible and adaptable is almost cat-like. Cultivating this ability prepared us for the unexpected, which is the time we live in now. Every day presents new challenges.
Like you, Mikelle and I are experts in change. The changes Mikelle experiences in her body every day make it so. Plus, we have had many changes in the people who come into and out of our lives since Mikelle transitioned from school to adulthood.
We have developed a few valuable power strategies we’d like to share with you.
Know the Difference between Planning and Preparing.
What could you do in this immediate situation?
Being prepared is more about being creative than having a plan. Planning assumes life will go as you thought it would, rather than it does. We access our current resources, look for some we may not have considered, and then link them creatively and inventively.
If you are lucky, you might be one of those rare people whose creativity meets their healthy analytic perspective and comes up with multiple plans that are being prepared. Plan B can replace Plan A If that fails, you have Plan C or D. The key is to have options.
Preparedness allows for quick thinking. Immediately, we can engage the energy of the moment to focus clearly on the desired outcome. Questions like, “What do I need?” “Who do I need?” “What resources can help me right now? Whatever comes up, you have what you need. These questions unlock action. We believe an action plan is critical to preparation and planning.
Developing Flexibility and Adaptability
Between the fear of losing a job and educating our kids at home, a virus that seems to multiply by the minute across the country, we can feel stuck, rigid, and even paralyzed by the unknown.
Fear can cripple more than any disability.
Like you, becoming a parent of a child with special needs, fear gripped me in the middle of the night as I held my sleeping infant. Back then, I wondered if I had what it would take to give Mikelle what she needed to live a rich and meaningful life despite her physical limitations.
Letting go of what was and being open to what will be can help us loosen fear’s grip. Awareness enables you to prepare for the unknown. We are creating various scenarios to gain more comfort with changes that we know will come, but don’t know precisely what they will be.
Absolutely! Here’s a smoother and more polished version of your sentence:
Mikelle and I regularly talk about potential changes, holding team meetings to explore the possibilities—whether it’s funding cuts or other shifts. While we stay prepared for whatever may come, we also live each day purposefully, setting daily goals and expecting today to be a great day.
Would you like it to sound even more poetic or casual?
We are becoming more flexible. We are stretching our brains and loosening up our creativity.
In other words, we are focusing on becoming more responsAble as we set off on our new journey into a changing world.
This challenge is helping us examine the meaning of life and see its value. Change has taken us places we didn’t think we wanted to go, and we ended up falling in love with where we have been and will be as we continue to perfect our responsibilities.