A Change Is As Good As A Holiday

 If that saying is true, then I've had more more holidays than I thought I'd ever have. And with all the changes in my recent years, the places those 'holidays' have taken me have been pretty fabulous.

I used to think I was a 'creature of habit'. That I liked things to stay the way they were. But now that I look back, I realize I thought that way because things did tend stay the same for me and I was rarely challenged by 'change'. Or if changes happened, like getting married, having kids, but they were changes I had planned for and expected. 

Life was on a pretty even keel until the day I was told I'd lost my job. That definitely wasn't something I'd seen coming and that change/holiday took me to somewhere I hadn't thought about - working closer to home (as opposed to commuting into the CBD every day. Unexpected job changes were to become par for the course in future years, the strangest one being made redundant (over the phone from Head Office - pack up and leave now!), then being reinstated a few months later only to be booted out again. 

The biggest and best change that hit me out of the blue was leaving a job (back in the CBD) that I'd had for eight years and I was, once again, made redundant. Asked to leave, on the spot. Like those scenes in movies where you pack up your 'stuff' in a box and do the 'walk of shame'. 

But as I sat in the cab home (I was too shocked and stunned to catch the train), the strangest feeling overcame me and I just 'knew' that this change was a good thing. I could physically feel that, and it was really weird but I was just so calm and content.

At the timer my elderly mother had gone into a retirement home and her health had some niggles (she was in her late 80s), so I didn't bother looking for a job for 12 months. I got a reasonable payout from the job so I gave her the time to take her to doctors appointments and give myself a long 'holiday' without having to work. 

When I did finally go back to the workforce, I ended up with the best job I'd ever had - and I'd never have had that if the big change of losing my job hadn't happened.

Now, if something happens - something that could potentially freak me out, make me anxious etc - I just remember that feeling in the taxi and tell myself 'this might just be something good eventually'. Whether it is or not doesn't really matter. I know that having a positive mindset towards unexpected changes will help me deal with them better. 

I also think that having experienced that 'it'll be ok' feeling has helped me embraces making changes myself. Try new things without stressing about 'what if it doesn't work' and that extends to my writing as well. I took the plunge into self-publishing, something I never would have contemplated years ago and that's yet another change that I'm so grateful for. My motto in my older years is definitely Embrace The Change.

Check out Andra's latest release 'A Firm Hand' on her Amazon Page.