I talk to my friends, first of all, make sure they know exactly what's going on. (I count by the way, feel free to chat or email at me.. hugs and good luck!

Not much. I procrastinate then deal with things at the last minute.

If it's a problematic thing, I try to educate myself about the problem and do what I can to solve or soften it.

I imagine the situation/myself after the change. I try different scenarios and put myself in them. If appropriate, I try to talk to someone (or several someones) and get his/her input.

Worrying about the future is a complete waste of time. I do it constantly, but I'm trying hard to stop. What's most important is the moment you have right now, and making the most of it...

I know this sounds like a bit of a cop out, but I simply don't think about it if I can possibly avoid it. I just wait for the thing to happen and take it from there. Of course, I've always had issues with anxiety, but since in the last few years, some of the things I was afraid of happened, and yet I didn't die. Nothing exploded. Therefore, I've become extremely fatalistic.

I mainly survive based on the things that are constant in my life. Odly, friends who I thought were assholes turned out to be way more supportive than I ever imagined possible. In essence, this isn't much different from arse's method, I just rationalize it.

I focus on trying to order the transition - making sure the steps happen in the best sequence I can manage. I seem to do it every 3 years, so I'm getting to be an old hand at it by now.

I never seem to have the forewarning that you speak of. The forewarning is the shit.

What kind of change? Good, bad or just different?

I consult with a higher power, preferably one with a nice, flowing robe or something. Then I eat a sandwich and play with a goofy dog.

I look at the situation, see if there's anything I can change or influence to my advantage, if I can do so without hurting others. I work on those things.

If there are things I can't change or influence, I try to accept them as they are. Of course, accepting them doesn't mean I have to like them, just learn to live with them until new changes come.

APRIL FOOLS!

Relish in the fact that it's your choice. Everything else will fall in place.

I make lists. Lots and lots of lists. Lists of things to do, to sell, to buy, to pack, to move, to save, etc., etc., etc. And then when I've made all the lists I can make, I freak out for a little bit, and then I take a list and I start doing the stuff on it. Stuff gets done based on deadlines (Ack! April 15!), how easy or hard it is to do (if I'm feeling discouraged I do something easy), etc. And then I cross things off the list.

And then, like all good bunnies, I eat carrot cake. (This is really an important part of preparing for impending life change.) Sometimes you really need some carrot cake. (Or good chocolate, or a massage, or a hug, or lunch with a friend.)

Yup. That's it. Now, who wants to buy my car, buy my bookcases, sell me a good travelers insurance policy, and get me a visa to New Zealand? Anybody? Anybody?

I know this sounds like a bit of a cop out, but I simply don't think about it if I can possibly avoid it. I just wait for the thing to happen and take it from there

I don't think this is a cop-out; apparently, it's good advice. A friend of mine, who is an executive coach, is always talking about this book whose name I can't remember which posits that you simply have to take big change one day, even one moment, at a time. Because the future will be different, you can't usefully picture it, because you don't know yet who you will be in that situation. This applies to change like the death of a loved one, moving to a new city, a job change, a breakup, whatever. You're supposed to simply take the best possible care of yourself in the present moment, and not even try-to over-prepare or speculate about it. You will become you need to be as you go along. I tried to apply her thinking when I moved and changed jobs two years ago, and found it to make a lot of sense. I became someone different than who I was in my old setting -- not deeply, esssentially different, but actually more engaged, more creative, and happier. I would never have predicted that.

Here's my quote of the month, by the way. I always find this Rilke quote helpful when I'm anxious about unresolved things:

"...Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.

Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

I suddenly blurt out, at the most inopportune time -- someone's engagement dinner, say, or graduation party -- "I'm off to join the Foreign Legion. Goodbye!"

Then I grow a beard and book passage on a tramp steamer to the Canaries and a career in freebooting.

I never worry about anything much; it never helps, and it only makes the hard parts worse. Also, while I can give spectacularly good advice to other people (this has been acknowledged - not just my inflated opinion of my "wisdom"), I'm pretty hopeless about counseling myself, so I just gave up on giving myself advice. I'm not a better person for it, but I have avoided a lot of bad advice that way.

However, if I were you, mudpuppie, I would listen to me, taz, and do everything I say do. I'm pretty positive about this.