Successful Transitions: The Opportunity to Rewrite Your Life Story
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Marquita_A_Herald]Marquita A Herald
Life is full of changes, big and small… all shapes and sizes. Some changes are welcomed; others range from inconvenient to catastrophic. You’ve reached a career dead-end, how do you make a job transition? Your heart was broken into a million pieces, how do you survive the days ahead? You’re being transferred across country and have to uproot your entire family, how do you face the challenges before you? How do you survive the changes?
While the words are occasionally used interchangeably, there is actually a subtle, but nonetheless significant difference between change and transition. Change is the external circumstances of what’s happening – the job change, the passing of a loved one, the break-up of a marriage; while transition on the other hand is the internal process that you must go through to adapt to the change and the new situation it presents.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~ Anatole France
A life transition can be positive or negative, planned or unexpected. Some transitions happen without warning, and they may be quite dramatic, as in cases of accidents, death, divorce, job loss, or serious illness. Other life transitions come from positive experiences such as getting married, going away to college, getting a promotion or starting a new job, moving to a new city, or giving birth to a child. Even when events like these are planned and anticipated, they can be just as life-altering as the unexpected events.
Whether positive or negative, life transitions cause us to leave behind the familiar and force us to adjust to new or different ways of living and thinking, at least temporarily.
Until we successfully transition from the old reality to the new reality, a successful change can’t happen.
There are three stages to successful life transition:
1. Let go of the past: What is ending in your life… your life as a mother with children living at home is ending; you are no longer single, married, employed, etc.
2. Internal Process: This can look and feel like periods of inactivity or even depression, as you allow yourself to mourn the loss of your old life. Feelings and reactions to things go flat, rudderless, ambition less… it’s like spending time in your own cocoon while you allow yourself time of solitude to rewrite your life story with a new and better ending.
3. Embracing the change: The beginning of a new way of living.
Ultimately, change can be good or bad. It is always up to you to decide if a change is for the better or for the worse. However, if you give yourself time to adjust to the change… to let go of what was, celebrate the good and forgive the bad… you may not only find change far easier and less stressful, but a wonderful opportunity to revisit hopes and dreams you once had but perhaps had forgotten.
Marquita is a writer, entrepreneur, coach, world traveler, avid reader, lover of dogs and the blogger behind IGG – Tips, Tools & Tantalizing Ideas. To learn more about cultivating resilience in your life, please visit my blog IGG – Tips, Tools & Tantalizing Ideas at: http://www.inspiredgiftgiving.com and look for my Free special report – 12-Step Guide to Building Resilience.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Successful-Transitions:-The-Opportunity-to-Rewrite-Your-Life-Story&id=6888477] Successful Transitions: The Opportunity to Rewrite Your Life Story
