Small Steps to Big Change

Image from morguefile.com

My last post was all about seasons, specifically the different seasons we experience within our own personal lives. Well, I’m currently living through a season of change…again. Primarily, this change involves our living situation. In the last few months, we’ve had a lot of confusion about our housing situation (as mentioned here) and unfortunately that confusion still exists. We’ve been trying to sell our home-turned-rental-property back in Pittsburgh, but have run into a few issues. Those issues have slowed us down and complicated the selling process. Additionally, we know that we will need to move out of our current house this summer because the landlord is planning to sell it. But we are uncertain (largely due to some lingering questions about Mark’s next work location) about whether we should move within the same neighborhood or look a little further away. With all three kids now in school, and especially with D gearing up for middle school next year, we have the additional questions about staying in the same school district versus moving to a new school district. So much to think about! We know there are a lot of changes coming our way, which is challenging enough. But it’s the uncertainty surrounding those changes that really drives me crazy!

One of my solutions to dealing with the craziness is to break down all these big changes and decisions into smaller steps. When I focus on all this change as one huge dilemma, I immediately feel overwhelmed and slightly very panicked. It’s just too much for my mind to process all at once! But when I force myself to break each large change or decision down into very small pieces, I feel less overwhelmed…even if I still don’t have everything figured out.

For example, when I focus on the idea of moving…again…for what will be the tenth time (not that I’m counting or anything)…my head starts to hurt and I just want to lie down and take a nap! But lately, when the panic of moving sets in, I force myself to mentally break down the BIG task of moving into small (sometimes tiny!) pieces. Right now, I’m focusing on clearing out clutter and getting rid of things we don’t want to pack up and take with us because they are broken, unused, unnecessary, or outgrown. And instead of trying to tackle every room in the house all at once, I’m working on small areas at a time. Yesterday, I focused on going through my paperwork and files. Today I’m planning to go through one toy box. By tackling these smaller tasks, I’m less overwhelmed and I feel like I’m making some progress toward our eventual goal of moving to a new house.

I also keep reminding myself that in a mere six months time, we will have moved again and many of these looming decisions will be made. We will have moved into a new place (whether the Pittsburgh house has sold or not) and I’ll be unpacking instead of packing (unpacking always seems easier somehow). In the words of my Grandmother, “This too shall pass.” In the meantime, I may not have it all figured out, but I’m making progress one small step at a time.