5 Ways to Find Power to Transition with Grace and Confidence
Life is like a circus and leaders are trapeze artists waiting for the right moment to release the bar. You spend your days creating momentum and letting go again and again.
Leaders create transitions. You succeed when you hang in mid-air with joyful confidence.
You fall when you hang on too long or let go too soon.
The power to transition is the power to live – to let go and take hold over and over.
Failure to transition is oblivion.
Power to transition:
Causes of transition:
- External demands.
- Competitive pressure.
- Changing rules.
- Internal dissatisfaction. Yearning for better.
- Fear.
- Dreams.
- Fatigue. Weariness is both a cause and a symptom of life in transition.
- Unresolved issues from the past return with greater urgency than before.
- Need to prove yourself.
- Aspiration.
Reasons you hang on too long:
You don’t let go because the discomfort you know is less painful than an uncertain future. Looking back, you often wonder why you hung on so long.
You hang on too long because you lack the power to transition. “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” (Attributed to George S. Patton and Vince Lombardi)
The future is fuzzy so you hang on to a clear present.
Fear of failure keeps you hanging on too long.
5 ways to find the power to transition:
#1. Embrace – don’t resist – transitions.
Shift your attitude from dread to opportunity.
#2. Seek the voice of experience.
Every transition you experience is common to humanity. Someone has navigated turbulent seas before you.
#3. Practice vulnerability.
Tell someone the truth about yourself and your situation.
#4. Do things you haven’t done.
The path emerges as you step forward, not before.
#5. Reflect on past transitions.
What have you learned about hanging in mid-air that empowers you?
Tip: Transitions are how you become.
Where do we find the power to transition with grace and confidence?
Still curious:
“Growth needs transformation; Transformation needs change. Change needs transition. Transitions are never comfortable” says an Indian Spiritual Guru Mahatria. Good advice on transitioning and using circus trapeze analogy.
Thanks CV. Transitions are easier when we accept that they are essential. Cheers
This is really well constructed; thank you, as always, for creating clarity!
Thanks Amy. Best to you.
Dan from the story of the aerial tight rope walkers, the Flying Wallendas. You fail and fall when you forget that your main goal is to focus on getting to the other side! This applies to much of life and business issues as well.
Brad
Nicely said, Brad. Keep moving forward. Thanks for jumping in today.
Great advice/thoughts – and Guidance!
Thanks Christine. Here’s to continued growth.
A great book on transition was written by William Bridges. It helped me understand the dynamics of transition in the midst of organizational change.
Thanks for the shout-out to William Bridges. Here’s a link to the latest version of his classic book on Managing Transitions. https://amzn.to/3O2iwDO
I really appreciate this post as I contemplate retiring within the next year. I value your insights and thank you for thematically filing these so I can reach out for your words – the right ones for the occasion – whenever i need to.
Thanks Barbara. I appreciate your kind words. Best wishes on your future.