• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Amosho || Mental Health & Emotional Wellness at Work

  • Enterprise Solutions
    • Self Care for Professionals
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Blog
  • Contact

The Wobble of Change

I was a smoker. It took 4 tries before I finally actually quit quit. One time, I had quit for a year, had a really stressful day at work, smoked one cigarette, and was smoking again.

When you’re learning a new skill, say, drawing cats, tying a climbing knot, making gazpacho, hiding a quarter in your palm, you’ll oscillate between

“Yeah, I got this,”

and,

“Uh, no, I don’t got this.”

The more you do it, the more you spend time in the “Yeah I got this” mode.

There’s a saying: 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Which doesn’t mean necessarily exactly 2 x progress and 1 x regress. 2 parts awesome, 1 part suck. It means you go back and forth but overall make progress.

However, this doesn’t quit capture the cyclical swing of change, whether that happens when learning something new, or stopping bad habits, or experiencing shifts in important emotions.

Getting over hurt or heartbreak, for example, you’ll have moments in the fresh clear freedom of forgiveness. Then you’ll swing back to the yuck — heavy hurt, bitter, angry. Over time, the crisp air of freedom expands and flows into most every last nook and cranny.

A process will speed this up. Read a manual on knots. Watch a video a day on gazpacho while you make some amazing batches and some failures. Hide the quarter 101 times in your palm before you try your magic on anyone. Do one worksheet on forgiveness, and later do another. The good moments expand. Freedom expands, if slowly. Peace expands, too, over time.

Feel the wobble, the swing, the oscillation. Note, over time, the deeper shift.

October 8, 2021

joe

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Healthy, Inspired Teamwork

Stay up-to-date with articles on innovations in workplace mental and emotional health and wellness

Search the site

Articles

  • Good Morning
  • Nourish Your Mind
  • Optimism Psychology
  • Programs
  • Self Care for Professionals
  • The Primacy of Emotion: Thinking Big About Feelings
  • The Unmatched Power of Other People

Inquire more here

  • Contact

Recent Blog Posts

  • How to Sell Ice Cream
  • Take a B.R.A.I.N. Moment for Clarity, Calm, Control, and Courage
  • Mental Health Issues are Not an Insult
  • Forgiveness
  • Breathing Fast and Slow

© 2020–2023 Amosho LLC