Life Transitions

Each of us traverses significant life transitions. We have little or no experience with preparing for a career or a career change, issues surrounding aging and retirement, personal loss, such as the death of a loved one, or life transitions caused by physical disabilities. How we adapt and move past the transition depends on our attitude with regard to the transition and what may lie beyond. Our ability to adapt and embrace transitions requires that we develop key personal characteristics and disciplines. 

Self-Awareness and Acceptance:  Acknowledging our emotions surrounding transitions enables us to move past fear and uncertainty and move toward development of a logical process for managing the conditions brought to us by a life transition.

Goal Setting and Planning: Establishing clear, achievable goals creates a structured approach to navigating transitions. When specific goals are clearly defined, that clarity provides the basis for recognizing and implementing steps by which the goals can by reached.

Seeking Support: Recognizing that we may need help from friends or mentors may be crucial to creating a path forward through the transition. Depending on the type of life transition, help may also come from exploring how others have handled similar transitions. Online resources, as well as friends or mentors, may be available and very useful for gathering information needed to develop a pathway through the transition.

Flexibility and Adaptability: Since we usually do not have experience with navigating a significant life transition, we need to realize that we may need to vary our path as we move through the transition. We may make mistakes or recognize and incorporate ideas that may have been unknown to us as we began our journey. By confronting the challenges presented by the transition with an open mind and a positive attitude, we will emerge from the transition with more control and security than we may have initially expected.

Reflection and Learning: Articulating our progress helps us to create clarity and preserves details of our experiences as we move along the transition pathway. Continual self-analysis is essential to the recognition, development and implementation of our processes required for positive outcomes through the transition and beyond. Journaling or conversations with friends or mentors may assist us with the clarity derived from the articulation of issues and solutions.

In summary, life transitions can be emotionally intimidating and chaotic. Through self-awareness, travel down the transition pathway can be successfully completed by creating clarity of purpose, clarity of process and clarity of progress. The use of resources like friends, mentors, online content, and printed material may be essential in creating a successful transition journey and beyond. Ultimately, transition success requires the mental and emotional resolve to create success.