Planning for Major Life Changing Events

Many times life changing events come as a surprise, causing people to be reactive to the situation rather than proactive. Without proactive planning, this can feel like life is nothing but a whirlwind of problems as you try to sort things out. These kinds of events can be a number of things from graduating college, to getting married, or moving to a new city. Whenever you know that life-changing events are going to arise, planning for them can help to make sure that you have control of things and not the other way around.

The first part of planning for life changing events is to gauge the impact the event will have on your life. For example, you might know that after graduating college you will have to find a job. In the meantime you will need somewhere to live. Or, another example of common life changing events is moving to a new city. This can be especially difficult if you do not know anyone in that city. When you are planning, take some time to think of all the ways that the life changing event will affect you. List as many as you can think of, the more the better. If you need help with this part of planning perhaps you can ask a person who has been through a similar situation.

Once you have finished listing out the impact of the potentially life changing event, the next part of planning is to think of ways to avoid negative impact from the life changing event. For example, in moving to a new city you might not know where to meet people. In this case you should list all the ways that you think you can meet people. At work, at a bar, and at gym are a few other places that you might meet people. In this part of the planning, you should go through the list of ways the life-changing event could affect you and list two or three solutions to the problem. Again, you can use friends or family who have been through similar life changing situations for help in planning for the event.

At this point in the planning process, you should have a list of life-changing events and a list of ways that you can avoid the risk or get through it once it arises. As part of the planning you should create a network of trusted friends and family that you can contact when you feel overwhelmed by the life changing events that you are going through. By planning out who you can contact beforehand, you are ensuring that there you have a shoulder to lean on when you need one. You might consider giving a person in your support network a copy of the planning list that you have put together. That way when you contact him or her, they will know not to suggest doing something that you have already done.

Life changing events are often unavoidable. What you can avoid, however, is the negative impact that these kinds of events can have on you. By planning what you are going to do to avoid an undesirable effect of life-changing events, as well as planning what you are going to do in case the life-changing event cannot be avoided, you are planning to move successfully through life changing events as they occur.