Kimberly Frey Consulting

Wow! It is so hard to believe that it’s been almost a full three months since I last posted. Life has a way of crashing in around us sometimes which can leave us feeling off-balance and unsettled. Chaos comes for everyone, and this post talks about how it came for me and what I did to navigate it.

If you follow me on social media or have been listening to my podcast lately, first off – thank you! Secondly, you already know that life has been pretty chaotic since the beginning of the year.

If you haven’t had a chance to catch up with me on either of those platforms, no worries. Because today’s post is all about chaos: how it impacts us and what we can do about it.

My whirlwind start to 2025

So as a refresher, my last blog was all about the power of setting intentions. I shared the reasons behind why I don’t create New Year’s resolutions anymore and that my intention for 2025 is “Grow.”

I want to grow as a business owner, life coach, and consultant, along with expanding my reach and the impact I can make in my community. With that in mind, I have taken on new challenges such as launching my podcast (which I wrote about back in November) and creating a new e-course (which I’m excited to launch soon). These things have taken a lot of my focus, especially because there has been so much to learn. Yet, I am loving the process and am excited to watch these initiatives grow.

In addition to taking on new initiatives, January was originally planned to be a month of resetting. Every year, my partner and I travel to Lake Geneva, Wisconson right after New Year’s to take some time for ourselves. The holiday season is especially hectic for us, and this time away has become an annual tradition that we cherish.

Because I am an overachiever, I also surprised my partner with a trip to Key West the weekend before we already had a trip to New Orleans planned…and at the immediate tail end of having out-of-town family staying with us for a week.

So to review, our perfectly planned January consisted of a road trip the first week of January, family in town for the third week with us flying out that fourth weekend (on the very same day they were leaving, no less), and then another trip the first weekend of February. What could go wrong, right?

when chaos throws you for a loop

That’s where chaos entered the picture. In the words of the Oxford Dictionary, chaos is “complete disorder and confusion.” You see, my partner and I had already decided back in December that we weren’t going to move when our lease expired in February. We actually said to each other that we didn’t have the energy to look for a new place and then pack and move. In our minds, we had committed to remaining in our unit for another year.

Until we found out that our rent was going to increase by a significant amount. So much so that we did not feel it was worth it to remain where we were if we could find another place.

This kicked off a whirlwind apartment hunt that led to us finding a place that was even better than the unit we were currently living in, located in an even nicer building, and having much better staffing. Between all that, the fact that our rent would basically stay exactly the same as it was currently (before the big hike), and the amazing rooftop pool that was already calling our name even though it was the dead of winter, all the signs pointed to doing the one thing we had already decided we weren’t going to do. Move.

This decision created a chaotic frenzy as we then had to prepare for the move we had mentally prepared to not make. There was plenty of complete disorder and confusion as we worked to pack our entire two-bedroom apartment up in the 4-5 days that we had after our third trip and before moving day. Thankfully we were able to enlist the help of family and friends, and the move happened with only a few hiccups along the way.

my 3-step chaos fighting framework

Fast-forward to the end of March, and we are mostly unpacked and settled back into our routines. We survived the chaos of our unplanned move because we had our chaos-fighting framework which consists of these three components:

• Responses to chaos. When chaos enters your life, which it inevitably will at some point, take a deep break and then determine the following three things:
  • What do you need?
  • What is your desired outcome?
  • What can you change, influence, or control?
  • Taking time to reflect on these questions and decide on your answers allows you to feel some type of control in the face of events that are out of your control.
  • In my personal example, I knew the move-in date and that I would need help, so I enlisted my family and friends to assist. I also was able to control my schedule, so I made sure to clear my calendar as much as possible once we returned from our last trip and even after the move.
• Adapting to chaos. Chaos brings things into your life that you can’t control or undo. That’s the very definition of the word.
  • How are you going to adapt and change?
  • Where are you able to be flexible?
  • What are your non-negotiables?
  • While I knew that I would be able to adapt from having a 2-bedroom, dedicated home office space to a one-bedroom dedicated home office “corner,” I also knew that my non-negotiable was absolutely figuring out how to make my dining room table and chairs work in the new space. (It’s a whole thing. You’ll have to listen to Episode 12 of my podcast to know why.)
• Embracing chaos. Sometimes you are going to have to just go with the flow. Protecting your peace means understanding that there are some things in life you just can’t control. Trying to control the uncontrollable is like trying to stop high tide from rolling in. Impossible to do and exhausting to even try.
  • So for me, that meant taking several meetings with my laptop sitting on top of a pile of moving boxes because the home office isn’t set up yet and it was the only way to get the height and lighting right.

the other side of chaos

Having come out on the other side, I’m happy to report that we love our new place, are excited to jump in the pool when the weather gets warmer, and don’t regret our decision in the least.

Also, I’m getting back into my routine which means it won’t be another three months until you hear from me again.

Until next week, my friends remember –

You Can Do It. And I Can Help.