We're Always In Transition
The fact is that we’re always in transition.
As much as we want stability, our lives and situations are never stable.
We’re always moving towards something, or away from it. We’re always driving forward or backwards, in one context or another. There is literally nothing (or very little, anyway) that we can take for granted.
This isn’t a fatalistic point of view. It’s not meant to bring you down. It’s just a fact.
It’s a recognition that as much as we want a sense of predictability, there can be no such thing. It's simply not possible.
This is true both in terms of the things we want - the positives - as well as those things we don’t - the negatives. You won’t always experience perfect health. Your work experience will not grow unfailingly. Those you live and work with will not always be there. At the same time, the opposites are also true. You can find your way back to growth, to high performance, to growth, to new colleagues and partners.
My point is, there is no straight line path. Even that thing you most take for granted, isn’t guaranteed. Tough to accept, but, in a sense, liberating, at the same time.
The key is awareness, education and work.
Awareness that this is the reality, that we cannot take things for granted, that we should assess, evaluate, and value what we have and where we are going. Those we work with. The things we have.
Education around our options and constraints and opportunities. About how we can continue to evolve, and develop and course-correct and grow.
And, work in the sense, that we need to do it. That we need to do the work to manage or mitigate our situations to the extent that we can. The very idea that we’re in transition, suggests that we can move in any direction, and the more work we do to influence what is happening, the better the chance that we can move in the direction we want.
Of course, the foundational idea here is one of awareness and acceptance. We have to accept that this idea of transitions is the norm and not the exception.
That’s the hard part. That it is going to happen, and you know what? It’s OK.
Because we can and will get past it. Because we’re always in transition.
