I'd like to briefly talk about the 3 Laws that I have repeatedly witness, not just with myself, but with others, when it comes to change. The 1st is Parkinson's Law: "Work expands so as to fill up the time available for its completion." This is the law that basically explains why you can't ever get anything done. The 2nd and most well know of the three, is Murphy's Law: "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." Lastly, however in my personal opinion the most prolific of the three, is Manson's Law: "The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it."
Have you ever notice when trying to make a change personally in your life that requires your time and effort, that something always seems to pop up, sucking up that extra time you thought you would have available to you? Sometimes, unfortunately, this is just life. You may have a family member, including yourself, who becomes ill and needs assistance. Obviously, this is a priority. You may have a new work deadline, client, project, etc. that out of nowhere comes to the forefront. I am not going to argue the validity of separating personal and professional life because everyone's situation is different. If this new work "thing" is crucial, then it is crucial.
Sometimes life happens that sucks up our free time at the worst possible times, however, oftentimes, it is purely mindset. Our minds don't like the thought of change, even when we are in a non-healthy situation in our lives, a situation we know we need to get out of if we have been there long enough where it is our normal, where we know how to navigate, where (as crazy as it seems) feel comfortable, our mind will fight the change. It sounds crazy I know, but whatever aspect of our lives we can run in autopilot, our mind prefers.
Why is knowing this important? Say for instance you wanted to start meditating 15 minutes a day. Your mind is constantly racing and you always seem anxious and you've read/heard/etc that meditation can do wonders, even just 15 minutes a day. So you decide that you'll start Monday morning. The Friday before, you find out that you need to start coming into work 30 minutes early because of a new project that you'll be team lead on. The 1st thing you think is, well guess I won't be starting Meditation. However, you've always stopped on the way to work to get a coffee, because the coffee at work is garbage, and still plan on doing so. Yes, the coffee shop is 10 minutes out of the way, but it is what you do. You (and of course I mean you in the literal sense) never think I should probably skip the coffee and use that 10 minutes instead to start meditating. Also, this could be a double win as the caffeine could be elevating my anxiety.
There are times in life that are outside of our control, and all we can do is "make the most of it". Often, it is our choice on how we want to allow the outside forces to dictate our life. Our minds are wired to defend our way of "current" life, the homeostasis we are accustomed to because it truly feels that it is in our best interest. Sometimes it's important to take a breath, look at the entire picture, and if necessary, override your initial instinct.
