Do You Know What The Biggest Value Of A Transition Plan Is?

5 min read

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Knowing that you can have a transition plan.

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Yes, that simple. Most people think that a transition plan is for changes that will happen to you in the future. Yes, there are benefits knowing that a change will happen to you and having the time and the resources to create a plan for that change. But transition plans are also for changes that happened to you in the past and for changes that are happening to you right now.

Why is that? Because it's so powerful to know that you have a choice to say yes or no to people, to situations, and to things.

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That you have a choice to ask for time, for support, for clarity, for more information, and for second opinions.

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Knowledge is power and it gives you the leverage to make aligned decisions – that you won’t regret later – that lead to a?successful life.

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Why is this important? Because 90% of the times we are not aware of a change that will happen to us. So, when a change literally hits us, we are surprised. That is why we don’t like changes initially. Most of us don’t like to be blindly surprised. We get scared and we become risk averse. We stop, slow down and we get afraid of making decisions. Thus, we halt our own progress.

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When a change happens, we automatically respond by trying to:

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1. Understand first this new situation that we're in. We're trying to understand the new circumstances, the new environment, the new external factors,?and the new experience that we have just been thrown into.

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2. Navigate through it. We are trying to figure out what action to take next, who to ask, who to trust, what to ask, how to make a decision, what is the right decision, when to make a decision, and what consequences to avoid. We’re trying to move quickly through the unknowns and make sense of the new reality.

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3. Understand and navigate through our internal emotions. We start crying for no known reason and we become “more or too emotional” for others. Internally we are going through chaos. Our emotions become more powerful than before, or new emotions show up that paralyze us.

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What is the result of these three? Is that you become discouraged, then you decide to give up and conclude “There's something wrong with me”.

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So, what do you do in this situation when the change is too much and?you blame and judge yourself for not being able to get through it?

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Most people escape and abandon the situation. They walk away, don't finish, leave everything unresolved, and return “home” without ever wanting to talk about the situation again.

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Some people choose to compromise the change, stand in front of progress and slow down others along the way.

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Either way, you lose the opportunity to become what the change might have forged you to become because you were too scared to navigate through your inner emotional wilderness (step 3).

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There are so many examples of people who are grateful for losing a limb, for being bitten by a shark, for being in horrible accidents, or for having been diagnosed with a serious illness.

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What are they grateful for? For going through the internal psychological process of adopting and adapting to the change. This process is called a transition.

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A change is an external event or situation that happens to you.

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A transition is essential for the change to work successfully.

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Losing a limb is a change. Living without a limb requires a transition into you choosing to make it through and deciding to figure out how you are going to become this new you.

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Yes, you will leave some parts of your identity behind.

Yes, you will keep some.

And yes, you will pick up new ones.

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You, as a person, will continue to be you – the whole person. Just made of different parts that now serve you better going forward in your life.

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So, what’s the biggest value of a transition plan?

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Is knowing that you can have one and thus you can get through any change in your life. Because you can make a plan to navigate yourself through any internal emotional rollercoaster or haunted house. Your life is not destroyed because of a change. It might have just turned into something scary from the outside yet unimaginably amazing on the inside.

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Thus, I invite you to consider creating a transition plan. And, of course, if you need help with that, reach out because I'm here for you.

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Remember, transition plans are not just for future changes. They are also for events and situations from the past and present.

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Thanks for listening,

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