This summer we lived through a kitchen remodel.

We crammed our kitchen into dozens of boxes and built a temporary setup on a small IKEA table kitchen near the front door.

It was exciting to see progress and challenging to live without a real sense of place.

I don’t offer this as a complaint. I’m overjoyed we get to transform our home. At the same time, it's essential context: there was just a low hum of stress in our house for months.

This was a summer of disruption.

Disruption is neither good nor bad. Like everything, only thinking makes it so.

Stress, fear, and panic make disruption more difficult to navigate.

Unexpected disruption can be frustrating and heartbreaking, like the pleural effusion around my left lung that materialized this summer, or my dog's passing.

Disruption can also be intentional (like our remodel). There’s joy in breaking something that was already broken, something that was no longer serving you.

This is why we set goals — to make change.

But, each turn, even one that causes stress or sadness, holds a lesson if you can focus your attention away from anguish and toward opportunity.

The first is almost always gratitude.

For what you have. For who you love. For the parts of your life that make you, you. For the joy that was.

The second, at least in my experience, is perspective.

On what matters and what does not. On the nature of mortality. On the beauty of just sitting in the garden and listening to the birds.

Third, after zig-zagging through denial, bargaining, and all the rest, is clarity.

About what you need to do. About the need to carry on. About what you want your life to be.

It is with this mindset that right action is possible — action that serves you in the long run, that opens new doors, that creates. It requires openness.

The opposite mindset, one beset with denial, fear, and a sense that it’s not fair or the universe is out to get you, only brings further strife and misery.

This is tunnel-vision. Blinded by the disruption, we can’t see past it, fooled by its trickery, we succumb to its overwhelming might.

When you’re in the thick of it, it’s hard to see.

When you’re on the outside of it, advising a friend, the choice is obvious.

As I write this, I think I’m somewhere in between.

The logical part of my brain can read a situation, acknowledge the overwhelming sensation that very little feels in my control, and attempt to shift it.

The emotional part of my brain is stuck and unable to move.

Ah, such is life. We must hold both as true.

Take a moment to pause & reflect. What big disruptions have shifted your life over the last year? Where in your life might you be craving a disruption?

Actions, experiments, & things to try next. Consider how you’ve framed the disruptions you’ve experienced. Do you view them in a positive, negative, or neutral light? What did they make possible? Did a health scare spur a new exercise routine? Did a new job surprise you with gratitude for your former colleagues? Find the lessons – they’re there, waiting to be picked up.

📫 If this sparked an idea, or if you’re feeling stuck, I’d love to hear from you. You can reply directly to this email to share what you’re working on, ask a question, or suggest topics you’d like me to cover in future newsletters. I read every response.

Until next time,

Michael

Michael Schefman | 321 Liftoff​

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