Our current circumstances may be nudging you to rethink your life and you may be wondering...What am I doing?
Transitions are part of navigating this beautiful life we have been given. Some transitions are society based, like grade school to middle school, high school to work or college, etc. These phases show up in our life every 7 to 10 years. Think about your last few decades, can you see your past transitions?
Once we reach the point in life when we think we are in control, we often have a few "Oh Sh--" transitions to deal with. You may be in one of these transitions now or feel a deep nudge from yourself to rethink your life. You may find you want to make a small change in your life or even realize you are happy with where you are and re-sign up with enthusiasm. If you feel it is time for a larger change, the below assessment of past transitions may help you develop a plan to regroup.
I love this quote from Napoleon Hill, “It takes half of life to discover that life is a do-it-yourself project."
Once you realize you are your own project, you can become better at transitions. Transitions require us to rethink our understanding of our life (our stories) and provide an opportunity to become fully yourself by thinking through these questions:
Who am I?
What do I value?
What do I want?
Aviva Wittenberg-Cox helps us with defining a how to rethink in 3 steps:
1. Harvesting the past: "...don’t just do something, sit there. Taking the time to digest your past, your patterns and your preferences..." Be open to thinking about your life in a series of stages and look for clues on who you are. Identify the stories you have been telling yourself, maybe it is time to re-story.
Psychologist and storytelling researcher Dan McAdams explains that our stories make up our narrative identity. But we don’t live one story or one identity. Instead, this narrative of self is ongoing, always integrating the latest information and developing into something new.
2. Assessing the present: How do you spend your time? What are three things you love about your life that you want to keep? What are three things you hate about your life and you want to leave behind?
"Imagine this: Who you have been in the past is interacting with who you are becoming now, at this moment. And imagine further, who you have been in the past is shifting as you evolve into your future."
3. Dreaming the future: Where are the needs, opportunities or people you want to engage with? Who energizes you? Identify role models, old friends and colleagues or organizations to (re)connect with. Learn from them, be curious, open up new worlds you may not have had the time or inclination to visit until now.
Reach out to 10 people who are doing something you find interesting. Be curious, ask for their stories, listen for clues to their transitions.
Even though we may not be able to predict the turns, we do get to choose how to respond to the twists and our stories are continuously evolving with each moment.
Let me know what you uncover. Want to connect to discuss transitions? I am happy to support you.
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