What is transition? How is it different from change or is it different? Why does it matter? In fact, change and transition are different. Change and transition are also related. Change is a word whose definition we tend to more easily understand: "to make something different." Transition is a bit more complex: "a movement, development, or evolution from one form or stage to another."
William Bridges captures the definition best in his book "Transitions Making Sense of Life's Changes," when he says,
Transition Coaching
"Change is your move to a new city or your shift to a new job. It is the birth of your new baby or the death of your father...In other words, change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner re-orientation and self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life...Unless transition happens, the change won't work, because it doesn't 'take.'"
Sometimes change comes first, initiating a transition. Take for example relocation. You just moved across the country or far enough North, South, East, West to feel like a big move. You are learning a new career or a different job, creating a new community, meeting new friends, trying to find a new doctor, dentist, drycleaner... You are starting over. While the move came first, the letting go of an old life (transition) followed in service of creating the new life, the new you.
Sometimes transition comes first, requiring a change. Take for example, again, relocation. Maybe the change, the relocation, was initiated by an internal want. Maybe the need for something different or more was so strong that it was the catalyst for your decision to relocate, to pursue a different career or new job or new place to live.
Bottom line, change is typically external and situational whereas transition is internal, involving a letting go of an old way of being and behaving so that a new, more relevant you can emerge.
Many of us feel tremendous change and transition right now because of the instability felt in the world at large and yet, transition has always been (and will always be) a part of our lives. We transition from the bottle to a cup, from a crib to a big bed, from home to school, from childhood to adolescence, to college, to career, to marriage, to parent, to health issues big and small, to changing careers, to changing friendships, to empty nest, to divorce, to death, to parents of our parents - the list goes on.
The way in which we know ourselves fades, is no longer wholly relevant and so we must create a new identity which incorporates this change or new situation. In every transition there is an ending (who we were) and a subsequent beginning (who we will be) and in between a very messy period. This isn't to say that every fiber of our being changes, it doesn't as likely our value system is static.
In the mess or gray area comes opportunity. We often shy away from the mess because it's unclear, uncertain, unstructured, well, just plain messy. And yet, if we reframe our understanding and thinking, the messiness can be an opportunity for creativity, for considering new possibilities and new ways of being. There really is opportunity in change, and that doesn't mean it's easy. Transition is difficult. How difficult? The level of difficulty is impacted by the significance of the change, our innate temperament, attitude, and resiliency, as well as our learned methods for stress management. Whether you realize that you are in the middle of a transition or whether something about your life simply feels "off," what do you do?
Get Clarity.
What do I know to be true? What am I feeling? What behaviors no longer fit or serve me? What do I need to let go of...about what I've believed or assumed, about how I've always been or seen myself? What do I want most out of life?
Recognize Choice.
What choices (possibilities) do I have surrounding this change or situation? How might my value system help me sort through the choices? What might I do to create a new, more relevant me?
Direct Change.
Commit to letting go of old behaviors, decide which new ways of being now serve you, define necessary resources, and create a plan to implement. Act, in support of the new you required of this transition.
The danger in neglecting the internal transition is becoming someone who moves from change to change. This is the person who moves from relationship to relationship or from job to job, using change to avoid transition. This is the person who leaves a job abruptly complaining about the terrible manager rather than stopping to notice a career pattern, rather than looking to see what it is about oneself that continues to find such bosses (or relationships), again and again.
Life brings us two constants, change and transition. Change will only intensify as we travel through the 21st century. How do you want to deal with the lifetime of change and transition ahead? What if you considered change from a perspective of optimism and opportunity? What if you entered into transition being more planful and intentional? Or, what if you decide to simply move from change to change without ever really taking a moment to reflect on the impact, or the necessary transition, preferring to react to the external world and ignore your internal world? Do you wash and wax your car and completely ignore the engine? You decide.
© 2009 Lisa B. Montgomery
Things Change, People Transition
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