By Jamie Kirk
When I think of the season of Spring, my head automatically goes to refresh, renew, re-invigorated, and rejuvenated. However, the interesting factor of allowing something to grow is that you often have to replant or re-soil. Even though we intend to replace the bad with the good, the sour with the sweet or addressing what is not working, with something that can work; we do the same thing day after day or previous season to previous season and think a more desired outcome will magically happen.Â
When we are in this season of “change,” we have to be very intentional and deliberate about what we are trying to change. You likely are not going to be able to change something without stripping it clean and vice versa, you will not be able to spring into a new “thing” until you decide to change.
A typical example is this laborious task of spring cleaning; putting our winter clothes in the attic, uncovering the patio furniture and so on. The easy stuff. This is physical. This is controllable. This is task-oriented. Once we do it, we feel prepared and ready for the change in weather. We make room for the changes. We can accommodate these changes because we indeed made them happen, and if we don’t adjust, then it is our fault.
But what if what needs to be sprung is uncontrollable? What happens when we get ready, we do all the necessary steps, and yet we just can’t seem to make any progress in our life?
Some people in our lives are in our lives without the approval of our heads. Our hearts tend to be forgiving and less pragmatic than our hearts. It is hard to remove someone from our lives when we are still in love with them. That love can look like sharing a home, kids, pets, a business, et cetera. But the removal looks less about wanting to clean up this area of our lives and more about moving things from one drawer to the next. We are really not making a change at all; the only difference is the perception, not necessarily a changed outcome or output.
Another example would be changing jobs. We may be ready for a career change or to change industries, but the hefty paycheck binds us. Or the ability to work from home or have clients that are not that demanding. We could be ready to renew our career and jolt it with a fresh start to allow for new opportunities to come our way. But the removal looks less about wanting to step out of our comfort zone and just settling for the status quo because we fear the unknown. This too is not a chance, but an idea, that we have talked ourselves out of.
Being sprung into spring should be done with a clear conscience and changes not made from extreme emotion (too happy, too sad, or too made). We need to control the areas that we want to change. When we are trying to change or move around things in our lives, we need to be able to determine how to overcome the loss – even determining if indeed it is a loss. Just because we strip something away to make room from something better, it may not fit the definition of a loss; it could very well be a replacement. But are you replacing it with something better or something worse?
To confirm you are enhancing your life, make sure you can answer YES to all three questions:
1) Will this change move my life forward and make me a better person?
2) Was this change created with a workable Plan B?
3) If I don’t make this change, will I continue to not be at peace?
If you answer YES to all three, then you have to do what you gotta do to ensure you spring into this new season. Ensuring that you are focused on renewing your life, re-invigorating your life and rejuvenating your life.