Many young people and their families who had hoped that this time of year would herald the start of an exciting new journey have had to make changes to the plans they had held onto for years without ever considering any other options.
Moving from school to university or that first job used to be a rite of passage for everyone, but recent events have meant that a significant number of young people have had to consider a future that looks quite different from the one they had expected.
For many young people and their families, feelings of disappointment can be made even worse by the element of surprise, that the predicted and hotly anticipated future feels like it’s been snatched away with no warning at all. Add into this picture the ever-present social media images which look so different from actual reality for most people but feeds the feeling that everyone else is having a fabulous time and getting exactly what they want and it’s easy to understand that feeling of angst that can seep into every aspect of life. But it’s just at times like this that it’s most important to remind our young people, and ourselves, that there are always new roads to explore. Every disappointment provides an opportunity for growth, change and flexibility. No one gets to adulthood without having had to deal with slights or things not having turned out the way we had hoped and every time we work through something we hadn’t expected to we build a little more resilience.
In NLP we talk about the importance of flexibility in every situation. When we feel disappointed it’s important to ask ourselves ‘what is the next thing I can do? ‘ and then… we move on.
Having to change our plans and take a different path to the one we had expected gives us an opportunity to grow and develop and could be the one of the most positive and empowering things that can ever happen.
If you’d like to explore how NLP can help with decisions and future planning, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can set up a zoom or FaceTime chat.
Don’t Agonise, Orrganise!