How To Ease Your Job or Life Transition

Meet Jan. She started a new career. She's always been successful so it's hard being in a new role she hasn't mastered yet. She goes into work every day with the best of intentions -- to be productive and useful. She finds herself sitting at an empty desk waiting for the boss to be available so she can get some direction. She's bored out of her mind from reading the company manual. She's frustrated and anxious for this "know nothing" phase to be over because she's feels useless. She's used to being an expert who knows her stuff! 


Have you ever started a new job, been promoted to a new role, become a new parent or a retiree and felt the discomfort and challenge of starting anew? Being in transition isn't easy.  It requires letting go of the familiar and being willing to stumble, make mistakes, and wobble with grace on the way to walking in the shoes of a master.  

I love helping people make exciting and successful life transitions. We work together to find the strategies that make their transitions smoother and accelerate their ability to get what they want out of life. In my many years of helping hundreds of clients make successful career transitions, move into retirement and set and achieve their personal and professional goals, three important factors emerge for making smooth transitions:

• Recognize that you're in a transition phase. This time of not knowing doesn't last forever and it is an essential part of making a change. 
• You need a strategy that applies to your unique way of learning.
• You need to determine what it takes for you to feel productive, valued and good about yourself at the end of the day and how to get that satisfaction.

So how did Jan get moving forward? She had to recognize that the transition phase is about adjusting to something new so there's no use feeling bad about not being productive. We designed a strategy just for her that she could put into action right away.

Discovering that Jan learns by doing we found a way for her to create some tools, a process, a system, and some steps to accelerate her learning curve. Once she had a foundation -- a strategy and some tools -- she knew how to best gather the information she needed. Soon she regained her confidence and began taking the initiative, asking the smart questions that were needed so she could feel comfortable taking action. Her increased productivity made her feel useful again. 

Now Jan's on the fast track, impressing her employer, feeling motivated and enjoying the learning that she's engaged in. We discovered the key that unlocked her path for moving from the discomfort of transition into the exciting learning phase which is now leading her gracefully into the success phase of her work and life.  

Have you ever started a new job, phase of life, or transition? How did you master it? I'd love to hear your thoughts so please leave a comment.