Ch-Ch-Changes
Don't ever change!
Are you old enough to remember this saying from the 90s? I remember it like a curse. We used to say it to each other at my high school, slapping High-Fives as we walked along Sunshine Hall. I remember thinking:
I do not want things to stay the same.
Then, as I became an adult, I started to realize: change is hard. It’s unknown and I don’t know what things are going to look like once change has happened. Change is really, really scary.
Magical Prague
When I moved to Prague after finishing my undergrad, I was terrified of all the changes I was encountering. I was in completely unfamiliar territory. After my initial shock, I realized I did have a choice: I could stay stricken, sedentary, silent. Or I could embrace the change, be curious about where I might end up and dive in.
This is my favourite quote. It's by Anaïs Nin:
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
In order to get on top of my discomfort, I started to practice a new daily habit:
Every day, do one thing that’s hard. One thing that challenges you, or scares you.
That’s it. That's my secret to embracing change.
At first, that one hard thing was picking up the phone and making a phone call – I was terrified of talking to people I couldn’t see. Later, it was exploring a new part of the city every day for at least an hour. After that, going to the post-office (believe me, of all the things that terrify me in any place I’ve ever lived, the post-office tops the charts!). Before long, it became a bit of a game: one that I still play daily 20 years later!
Remember the pandemic? (You’re thinking, yes, Valerie, I remember it like it was yesterday!). Our lives were so profoundly impacted by that move from whatever city and country we were in at the time to a completely new (to most of us), potentially insular, isolated online world.
In an effort to reach outwards, I started sharing live videos with my piano, Bernadette. The pieces I played were based on places I’d lived or my responses to current events. One piece I decided to share was Alexina Louie’s Changes :
Change is inevitable. We all face change daily - sometimes big, ugly, scary changes. Sometimes gradual, hardly noticeable ones. Sometimes we embrace bold, new adventures!
Do you have a big change coming up? Graduating from University? Ready to switch trajectories in your career? Moving to a new country? Retiring? Are you looking for a new way of doing what you already love to do?
I see my friends and colleagues facing new challenges now that we are facing a post-pandemic world. I want to do what I can to help support them navigate these changes.
So I've decided to offer a FREE mini three-day training
March 29-31 2023 at 2pm Eastern
to offer my support to anyone who is going through a change, or looking to make a change. Over the course of the three 30-minute sessions, I’ll be sharing my strategies for integrating into a new environment quickly. These strategies have helped me embrace change in my many, many moves (20 and counting!) over the last 2 decades and jump right back into the business of doing what I love: making music!
Together, we will explore how to:
Navigate Pandemic Culture Shock
Debunk the Reinvention Myth
Build Community
I’ve been engaged by various organizations such as the Canadian Federation of Music Teacher Associations, The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society, Ensembl’Arts and the Association for Opera in Canada as a guest speaker and mentor to share these strategies on navigating change.
If you are curious to learn more about how I’ve supported my clients in their own changes, you can click on the button below to be redirected to right page here on my website:
And please, feel free to share this post with anyone in your community going through a change that might benefit from a bit of support right now!
Let’s be the change we have been waiting for!
