In this episode:

Eight ways to respond when your life is on hold and plans disrupted. Face the challenge with a perspective shift about delayed plans, uncertain future, and indefinite waiting.

(Article contains affililate links. This means that when you click a link and make a purchase, I might receive a small comission from that purchase.) Inspired Life Postponed. Interrupted. Delayed. Canceled. Uncertain. Indefinite. Hindered. Suspended. Questionable. Undetermined. I tried to think of all of the words that could give a planner anxiety. Not planner as in someone who plans events, but a person who likes to have an orderly method for life. A planner:

Puts events on calendar far ahead Arranges details using binders, sticky notes, phone reminders, and white boards. Has a sense of what will be happening for the next two weeks, two months, two years. Has a FranklinCovey binder and actually writes stuff in it. Reaches deadlines and finishes stuff. Keeps details and possibilities organized in her brain for months before an occasion.

Imagine the anxiety for anyone who is a planner when life is interrupted. What about when it’s interrupted not only for them but for the whole world? Suddenly all those horrible words are tossed around multiple times per day: Postponed. Interrupted. Delayed. Canceled. Uncertain. Indefinite. Hindered. Suspended. Questionable. Undetermined. This week, I’m giving some quick tips on how to cope when everything you had scheduled is on hold. For some, this is immediate as our world copes with a pandemic. But for others, this has already been their reality as the uncertainty of a diagnosis blocked plans. Or the loss of a home in a tornado, or the loss of a spouse… Vacations have to be canceled, weddings put on hold, gatherings postponed, and plans suspended. Let’s look at what we can do when plans are postponed indefinitely.

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Life, Repurposed Let's look at 8 ways to respond when your life is on hold and plans disrupted. We can face the challenges with a perspective shift about delayed plans, uncertain futures, and indefinite waiting.

Choose how to respond. My first reaction is to get upset. Angry, even. But after that initial grief, I have to make a conscious choice to respond differently from the initial meltdown. It takes practice to change my  response. Breathe. Sometimes when I am stressed out, I need to slow my breathing. I start with a slow breathe to clear my head and get some oxygen. My husband sometimes thinks I’m sighing because I'm irritated with him, but I’m just breathing it out! Talk to a friend. I hate to bother people, so I don’t like to interrupt someone else. But I have a circle of people who I know I can interrupt at any time to tell them I’m struggling to cope. We need each other! Plan in the short range. I recorded this in the middle of a “shelter at home” o...