Wednesday Wisdom- Disengagement & Discomfort

Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking but a full-on metamorphosis. -Martha Beck

This Wednesday we explore Disengagement & Discomfort.

A lot of people are in the middle of some big life transitions. I have been hearing from  many folks who are now ready to move on  in their career. After  the past few years of dealing with lay-offs and budget cuts, people are just tired.  I mean  T-I- RED.

When we are in jobs that do not fulfill us we get really drained and disconnected from ourselves. It is hard to listen to that inner voice and make the right choice from you when you can no longer hear it.

As William Bridges pointed out in his book, Transitions, our life transitions are composed of an ending, a “neutral zone”, and a new beginning. When a transition occurs, we need to give up our old definitions of the world, our old ways of doing things, and we are challenged by the process of “letting go”.

Endings are difficult for most people, even when we are unhappy with the way things used to be. The known is more comfortable than the unknown. Once we let go, however, we enter a period of feeling disconnected from the past but not yet connected to the present – the neutral zone.

Stage 1 – Discomfort
A change is coming on. You can feel it. You can smell it. But you might not be sure what the change is or what to do about it. The more you fight it and try to get logical about this change, the longer you‘ll stay in the discomfort stage.
You may feel:

  • Reluctant, Fearful, in Grief, Angry, Confused, Uncertain, Negative, Defensive, Reactive and Trapped.
  • You may distrust your decisions and your intuition.
  • You are likely to worry more than usual.
  • Recommendations:
  • Stay with your routines that you know Work for you.
  • Don‘t Over Commit to others at home or at work.
  • Allow yourself to go Internal when you need to

Give your self the time and space to hear your inner voice….just remember you do not need to know the next 10 steps, just the next one.

 

 

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