When Endings Can Be New Beginnings – Remembering How To Be Your Own Hero
When something in your life ends, it can be painful and scary. But every ending can be a new beginning, leading to something better. How can you turn an ending into a new beginning? Psychologists offer these tips for making endings a new and better beginning.
“All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.” – Mitch Albom
Closure – In psychological terms, closure is the transition away from something old or completed to something new and different. Life coaches, who specialize in helping people make new starts, state that closure of something old is vital to having a positive new beginning.
Many life events have a pre-determined closure. High school and college end with graduation, apprenticeships end when you’ve gained enough experience, and even vacations end when you need to go back to work.
While it’s great to have good memories of these situations, you need to close those parts of your life to move forward successfully. Like divorce or being fired, unplanned events also need closure, or you will spend more time focused on what ended than on what is beginning for you.
Psychologists at New York University Medical School offer these steps to gain closure from an ending in life:
- Take responsibility for the ending
- Grieve loss
- Create a ritual
- Focus on your strengths
- Make a plan
No matter why something ended, you need to reflect on your role in the situation and take responsibility for your part. Did you miss enough work to get fired? If you didn’t spend enough time studying, poor grades in school are your responsibility.
Acknowledging your role and grieving what you lost, good or bad, help you find closure before starting a new beginning.
Get ready to focus on your strengths. Use your strengths to make a plan so your new beginning is positive and productive.
Change-Growth-Learning – According to psychologists at the University of California Los Angles, you cannot change without growth and learning. An ending is the perfect time to create a new beginning and make changes in your life. To help to make an ending a new beginning, consider that change is:
- Disruptive
- Personal
- A risk
An ending is disruptive to your life. New situations can cause anxiety and stress. But a disruptive ending is time to start a new beginning. Changes you make now are personal. Take the time to ask yourself what you want from your life. A new beginning is an opportunity to make the changes that will make you happier.
Change is also a risk. You have a choice. You can cling to what has ended, which risks limiting your growth and potential. Or you can embrace a new beginning, which risks making mistakes or even failure.
Change comes from growth, and growth comes from learning new ways of functioning. You may make mistakes along the way. You may fail, but that ending is another opportunity for a new beginning. Each new beginning builds on what you have learned, good and bad, from previous endings.
Live Your Best Life – An ending allows you to make a new beginning where you can improve yourself and your life. What did you like about your life before the ending? What did you not like? A new beginning allows you to make changes and improvements. Gratitude for what you have and for the opportunity to gain more helps you accept an ending and turn it into a new beginning.
Endings can be new beginnings any time you focus on the positive changes you can make. Close the end chapter in your life and start changing, growing, and learning to help you live your best life.
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