How to Master Major Disruption in your Life

Planning for disruption

I am a lover of planners, to-do lists, schedules, routines, and anything that helps me to feel productive (notice I said feel and not be). I have 5 different planners, 10 different notebooks, and a million calendar events and notifications on my phone. It sounds crazy when I think about it, however it helps to calm my universe.  Any fellow planner nerds give me a shout out in the comments below! What do you do when major disruption happens with the plan you had for your own life? What happens when the safety and security of the plan that you anticipated going one way ends up taking a sharp left onto Major Life-Altering Crisis Boulevard? You learn how to Master Major Disruption! Let’s face it, it is inevitable. Especially with the state of uncertainty and disruption we have been in within the last two years with Covid, we have to learn how to use the inevitable to our advantage.

No one is exempt from disruption

I have had my share of disruption within the last two years. Let’s see… I left my teaching job in Feb of 2020 to switch careers. Covid shut down New York in March of 2020. I focused on being available for my family during the shut down and stayed home with my children during remote learning for a whole school year and a half. My father died in July of 2020. I had a car accident in August of 2020, at the beginning of 2021, Jan-March, I lost my Uncle, Aunt and Grandmother. I lost my father in law in July 2021, got into another car accident in October 2021 and broke my wrist; which I am still recovering from as I write this. And those are the major disruptions, let’s not forget the other smaller disruptions sprinkled in through out that time. All during a global pandemic that won’t quit, with other political and environmental crises that have been alarming. It seemed like it was just one thing after another. I had to learn how to master major disruption.
 

Master of Disruption: Job

I always try to give some biblical connection because, why not?! When I think of major disruption, I think of my main man Job. The book of Job is the prime example of major disruption! Major life altering disruption! Job is living his best life, minding his business, counting his money AND was a righteous man. In other words, Job was filthy stinking rich, and of good character. God bragged about how great of a man Job is. The devil asks God if he could test Job and assured God that he would curse his name if he took away all that Job had. (Job 1:6-12) God says sure just spare his life. When the devil got through with Job, he lost all of his livestock, his farm hands were killed, his servants were killed, all of his children were killed, and he had terrible boils from head to foot. He was the richest man in that area and basically lost everything all at once.(Job ch. 1 & 2)

There are two ways in which you can handle disruption

1. You can allow the disruption to become a distraction which can leave you in idleness and bitter.

2. Or you can allow the disruption to cause you to be still (before God) and learn how to use it to propel you into your purpose. When you are able to focus on God instead of the disruption(pain, illness, betrayal, loss, etc.), you are not just handling the situation you are mastering it.

Related: How to clear the clutter from your mind

Books related to mastering disruption:

How to Master Major Disruption in your life

1. Grieve the loss in your life

Allow yourself time to grieve a loss. Allow yourself time to be in pain and acknowledge your pain. Don’t be hard on yourself if it takes more time than you anticipated to bounce back and feel like yourself again. An unexpected traumatic event is a loss. Whether it’s a loved ones unexpected death, the sudden loss of a job, an accident where you get hurt, the betrayal of a friend, a plan that didn’t work out, or a relationship that didn’t work out. These are all blows that can take a minute to register and go through all of the emotions that come along with it. Talk to someone you trust, see a therapist, find a support group, deal with it in a healthy way so that you can heal properly. Ignoring it can cause more damage, especially long term.

2. Be still in major disruption

To be honest it took me a minute to realize that if you are not careful idleness can disguise itself as “being still”.  While recovering from my wrist injury as well as an emotional injury due to other personal things going on, I said to myself I am not going to worry about doing anything but healing, physically and emotionally. I am going to “be still”. The definition of stillness according to dicitionary.com is 1) silence; quiet; hush. 2) the absence of motion. Some synonyms are calmness, peace, serenity, tranquility, etc.. During my time of “stillness” I was not any of those things. I was worried, confused, angry, sad, insecure and frustrated. I was not physically engaged in busyness, however my mind was constantly cycling through all of those emotions or trying to find ways to distract from those emotions like watching TV. Idleness is defined as the quality, state, or condition of being lazy, inactive, or idle. Synonyms for idle are empty, unproductive, useless… geez. I thought I was being still when I was really being unproductive because my attitude wasn’t right. Being still is about being in a position to receive guidance and direction.

3. Pray through major disruption

While I was “being still”, I was praying, journaling, and reading scripture; which is why it never occured to me that I was being idle. I thought I was doing something. However, it was during prayer and devotional time that God revealed to me that I was in fact not being still, I was being idle! I don’t like talking to God sometimes because he puts me in my place all the time! I’m like God, I’m not focused on “doing” stuff so that I can focus on you and things are still messed up. I’m being still, doing what you want me to do. Yes I was praying and journaling, but I was also binge watching tv and feeling sorry for myself. He said that is not stillness, it’s idleness. It was then that I realized It is not my actions that define my stillness but the state of my heart, mind, and posture before God.

Related Post: How to pray for growth in your life

4. Have a Support System

Having a good support system was so necessary. You don’t realize how much you really need people until you are forced to rely on them. And not just any people but a system of support to help you get through difficult times. I had friends that I could call when I needed to vent and they listened and gave sound advice, friends that I could call when I needed something done that I couldn’t do; like my daughters hair for picture day, family that came and spent the night and day while my husband was at work to help take care of my two kids and two dogs and myself for weeks, family that came to pick up and drop off my kids at school, a pastor who would check on me and pray for me, a therapist that I could check in with when I needed to and others who offered support in anyway that they could. I am grateful for my support system because it helped me get through a very difficult time physically and emotionally without dropping the ball on the million things that still needed to get done.

5. Learn from and how to transition out of major disruption

After you have gone through the grieving process, developed a posture of stillness, prayed through the difficult times and received help from your support system you can begin to transition out of major disruption. When you have the mindset to learn something from the situation that you can apply to your life, you are transitioning out of disruption and able to utilize wisdom. While I was recovering, there were times when I had to figure out a way to do something by myself with my current limitation. For example, instead of thinking I can’t type, I thought how can I adapt? I can utilize text to speech software to send emails or type. That is not rocket science but in a negative mindset it is so much harder to find solutions, I couldn’t think of that as an option until I was ready to think about options instead of can’ts. Disruptions cause a shift in mindset, cause a drop in confidence, increase anxiety and a host of other things if you let it. Learning how to adapt or shift is key in mastering disruptions.

Mastering Major Disruption

This New Year I am going to embrace disruption and allow it to propel me into purpose.  Instead of dwelling on the “why me?” I will focus on the “what can this teach me?” and move from there. Job mastered major disruption. He grieved, he was still, he spoke to his friends, he prayed to God, he learned from his disruption. At the end of his disruptive period, God blessed Job with double all that he had lost. Being still is about peace and calm, even in the midst of the storm.  It is not your actions that define stillness but the state of your heart, mind, and posture before God. When you can truly be still before God and have peace of mind, you can learn to master major disruption. Don’t let major disruption stop you and steal your confidence. Be still before God and be guided through the shift that is coming by way of major disruption; it could be the way to greater things for your life.

How do you deal with major disruption in your life? Comment below to share or if you want prayer for a disruption or loss that you are struggling through.