3 Strategies to Finding my Footing after a Major Life Curveball

On an ordinary Tuesday evening, while the frozen blueberries melted in the abandoned bag of groceries from Trader Joe’s, my life took a completely unanticipated turn. Days later, as the initial feelings of shock gave way to the beginnings of acceptance, I began to see that I was at a crossroads. I had a choice: buckle under the duress or … see my future as an opportunity that was ripe for reimagining. At the time, nothing was clear, of course. The last thing in the world I wanted to hear was “give it time” and “don’t make any major decisions right now”! This was life without a map and I wanted answers … now. I couldn’t pull those out of thin air but what I could do was repurpose my day planner (I was still a “paper girl” who loved keeping track the old-fashioned way) with a new mission: Survival & Rebuild. Getting through the next year I found the following 3 strategies provided comfort and direction:

1. SOCIAL CONNECTIONS. Each day included either a coffee date with a friend or a workout class at my gym. Or both. 
2. DAILY REFLECTION. Every night before bed I reflected upon my day and listed 3-5 gratitudes in a little notebook.
3. IDENTIFY RESOURCES. I’ve been following creatives of all walks of life since the early days of blogging and photo-sharing (flickr, before we had Instagram). Stories of lives reimagined always had an appeal; now they were downright relevant. The words of wisdom and experiences of these virtual connections gave me hope and inspiration. One of these, artist and all-around creative Danny Gregory says it well in his blog post here — as he writes about figuring out how he and his first wife navigated tough stuff and how by sharing he built a community that buoyed many.

P.S. Any life-altering event qualifies as a ‘curveball.’ This includes divorce, loss of a loved one (including pets!), job loss, a relocation.