Beauty in chaos? No, I'm not on drugs! I've been struggling to see the upside of all the recent changes in my home, personal, and business life. . . and there are a lot!


I came home Monday night to find my backyard had been replaced with a huge hole! I am currently building an addition onto my house. I hadn't anticipated the work beginning for another couple of weeks. So, imagine my surprise when I returned to a rectangular hole the size of a large in-ground pool and about 12 feet deep. The change that upset me most was my pink azaleas smooshed to smithereens.


Lots of changes, lots of chaos in my world right now: winning the marketing makeover, figuring out where I want to go with Vermont Shortbread Company, figuring out a new relationship, my full time technical writing work demands, getting myself on track financially after struggling as a single parent for many years. This is all good, really. I've created these changes, so what's the chaos and stress all about?


I think my gremlins like the status quo. Our gremlins (for me, the fear gremlin) are threatened by change. The fear gremlin doesn't like bold, big leaps. What's it going to complain about and be victimized by when I reframe old beliefs about why I couldn't find love, or why I couldn't grow my business, or why I was always broke?



The beauty in chaos, for me, means that things are beginning to shift. My gremlins are going to put up a huge stink. I'm going to treat them with kindness, for they do serve a purpose, but I am not going to let them run the show.


Here are my tried and true techniques for coping with chaos:

1. Take small bites out of overwhelm. For instance, today I am planning my day hour by hour. What goal do I want to achieve in the next hour? If that seems like too much, break it into smaller increments. I know this method works well. I used it to run my first marathon many years ago. I didn't run 26.2 miles. I ran 1 mile 26.2 times.
   
2. Sleep and eat. It sounds like an obvious solution. I forget to eat when I am stressed. In the midst of chaos, I schedule my meals and sleep, making darn sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep a night and eating foods that make me feel good from the inside out (yes, that means I have my chocolate bar AFTER lunch instead of FOR lunch).
   
3. Tackle one item that scares you most as the first to-do of your day. The high it will give you carries you through the day.
   
4. Meditate, pray, practice self-hypnosis- whatever puts you in touch with your personal higher being, even if only for 10 minutes.
   
5. Recognize the gifts in your discomfort. Think of a time when you blasted through something you were convinced you couldn't do. How does it feel to plow through pain, trust the process and give birth to something great on the other side? Chaos and change are like labor. You must trust in your own process, recognize the difference between heatlhy and unhealthy pain and know that you are giving birth to something you can't wait to welcome!

The huge hole in my backyard is ugly and scary to me right now. But, it's
just a hole. It isn't good or bad. And I intend to fill it with
a beautiful home filled with people I love.



Ann is a freelance senior technical writer
and an entrepreneur: an eclectic combination of left brain techno-nerd
and right brain artist. By day she writes for IBM and by night she
develops her business, Vermont Shortbread Company. Ann recently
won a marketing makeover for Vermont Shortbread. Read about her
marketing adventure.

Labels: From the Editor