\u201cAre you sitting down?\u201d my husband asked down the phone line from across the world.<\/p>\n
As I braced myself, he delivered the news. His company needed\/wanted\/voluntold him to take up a role in Singapore.<\/p>\n
This was not our plan. Not even close. However, because my husband loves his work, and because I love my husband, we decided to pack up our home, children and lives and set up residence in Asia.<\/p>\n
(Side note: this was not my first \u201crelo-rodeo.\u201d There have been numerous moves over our 25-year marriage. However given the ages of our four children (14-19), it was one of the harder ones.)<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019d love to tell you I did it all with the grace and humor of a highly-evolved human being. But alas, I\u2019d prefer not to lie.<\/p>\n What I can tell you is that I learned \u2013 and relearned \u2013 valuable lessons on handling change over the last year. Of course, given my line of work, I know plenty about change already. However, there\u2019s knowing what you should do, and then there\u2019s actually having to do it.\u00a0As with many things in life, the\u00a0\u201cknowing-doing\u201d gap\u00a0often dwarves the Grand Canyon. Needless to say, there was no irony lost on me as I fumbled through the process of walking my own talk.<\/p>\n If you are facing change yourself right now, I hope that the advice to follow will help you fumble less yourself. Or short of that, just give you\u00a0some\u00a0solace knowing that you are not alone.<\/p>\n 1. Go easy on yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n As I\u00a0shared in this live video\u00a0message I recorded\u00a0in the midst of packing up last year, change is hard, even change for the better! If it were easy, there\u2019d be a far fewer people slogging it out in jobs they loathe, in relationships that leave them lonely and, to borrow from Thoreau, living lives of \u201cquiet desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n