Today, let’s begin exploring the three major components of a life transition, as I have come to understand them.

The first component, The Old Ending is the awareness and the actual experience of life as we know it ending.  For example, several years ago, my job was eliminated. While my position had been reduced to half-time for a year,  I chose to deny the possibility of my job might end until the day my director told me my position would be totally eliminated in 30 days.  Even though I recognized my positon was in jepordy, denail took over.  I did not want to acknowledge my life could be turned upside down.  Soon however, the job loss became my reality.

The second component is what Bruce Feiler in his book, Life is in the Transitions,  calls The Messy Middle.  Continuing with the example of my job loss, I found myself attempting to bargain with my director and other department directors within the organization for a different position,       however, there were no positions to be had within the organization.  The recession our nation was experiencing, at the time, had forced the down-sizing of hours and positions.  I asked myself, “Now what?”  After several weeks of job searching without success feelings of depression began to set into my life.

The final component, The New Beginning, involves moving towards acceptance of the situation and an increase in energy to reimagine, reconstruct, and create a new start.  Let’s look at my job loss again.  After 10 months of surviving, I began to accept my current reality.  I had to chose to change me, if I was going to move forward in my life successfully!  I had to look at how I was ‘showing up’ in my life and the world around me.  I began to look for the lessons I needed to learn from losing my job.  I began to look for  opportunities outside my old experiences in life, and then I began to gain hope.

Tomorrow, I begin to share with you seven different levels of energy that t Bruce Schneider describes in his book, Energy Leadership: The 7 Level Framework for Mastery in Life and Business, and how I have applied them to navigating through life transitions.

Stay Tuned.