Don't Get Caught Off Guard
It’s not the transitions themselves—but how prepared you are to face them.
Your life depends on how you handle transitions.
Experts say we will go through 20-25 major transitions in our life.
The saying is that "your life is a sum of your choices...."
I'd argue that it may be more true that it's a sum of how you handle the transitions in life.
What type of transitions are we talking about?
Going off to school
Getting married
Starting a career
Losing a parent
Divorce
Midlife
Getting Laid Off
Empty Nesting
etc.
The mileage may vary for different people, meaning that marriage may be a bigger transition for others than it was for you. But how you deal with the change of such a transition determines the quality of life for you—and others.
Transition requires at least one thing from you each time. Change. It requires you adjust and adapt your life to handle the transition.
Should you not adjust (and, oh-so-many people don't adjust!) it's going to be a rough ride for you.
But most people do adjust—they just choose to adjust during or after the transition has happened. Unfortunately, with that strategy, they take some hard knocks and end up learning the hard way—on the job.
Not ideal.
What's a better way to deal with transition?
To know What's Next.
That's right. If we experience 20-25 transitions, and we know what 80% of those transitions are probably going to be (you know midlife is coming, you know the end of your career will come one day, you know you'll lose your parents or that you'll be an empty nester), then how are you preparing to handle and navigate that transition?
Your biggest advantage to handling a transition is anticipating it. Being prepared, so that when it happens (and oh, it will happen!) you already know the plan.
Here's what you:
e.g. "My company just told us that things are looking rocky. I love where I work and don’t want to leave, but I’m still going to have a plan for what’s next—just in case."
Identify the criteria important to you post-transition.
Using a career change as an example, know what you want your next role to look like should you get laid off.
Take those criteria and identify roles that would align.
For instance, if you know you want to work remotely, have light travel, and be in a role where you're helping people, identify up to three roles that meet those requirements.
Then rank each role based on how well it matches your criteria.
Score each role against your priorities, add up the totals, and see which one stands apart.
Make a plan.
Just like in disaster planning, the key is to have a plan.
If you can identify the most likely transition that's coming your way next, know what it is you want should that transition happen AND have a plan, you'll be ahead of 99% of folks out there.
Life is in how you handle the transitions.
-Adam