Life’s Transitions 📍
Hello dear reader,
It’s a big week (or month) for so many households: the first day at nursery, the first day of reception, the first day of secondary school, the first week at university. So many firsts, and so many moments of letting go.
I was on a Zoom call with a client today who told me it was his wife’s first day back at work after maternity leave and his daughter’s first day at nursery. It’s all good, and we know it’s all right, but it can also be so hard.
I can distinctly remember walking home after dropping our eldest off at school for the first time. The disorientating feeling of knowing this was a new era, a new season for us all, and that the old one wasn’t coming back. It’s all good, and we know it’s all right, but it can also be so hard.
Fast forward fifteen years: a lifetime of letting go in between.
2021 was time to let go again—for university. I was genuinely beyond excited for him, but I also knew it was another transition. A new season of having an adult child who didn’t live at home full-time and was beginning to lead his own life in a new city.
I cried for a few days in the run-up (it’s OK, I’m a crier), but on the day, after a good cry on my own in the shower, I knew my role was to be a mum. I set about making the day run as smoothly as possible, with as little of my emotion on display as I could manage. Needless to say, as we drove away and left him in his new home, my husband and I both had a cry as we made our way back and adjusted to this new season of our lives, this new chapter for us as a family.
It’s all good, and we know it’s all right, but it can also be so hard.
Over the years, I’ve learnt to recognise that transitions are the stuff of life. For us, this year we’re facing the serious illness of a close family member and all that this will entail, along with letting go of son number two as his gap year takes him literally to the other side of the world—and probably a lot of other letting go that I don’t even know about yet.
There’s always either a transition on the way or one you’ve just gone through.
The newness of exciting things—new jobs, new homes, new friends, new relationships, new life stages, new decades. And the harder things—the loss of work, the loss of friendships, the end of relationships, the loss of health, the end of a season. It’s so important to recognise that whether it’s a positive or more difficult moment in life, many transitions can be painful and can leave us feeling disorientated and destabilised. We have to find who we are in the next season, recognising what we leave behind and what we’re taking with us.
In this episode (the first of two parts on the theme of transition moments), we look at:
Why transitions impact us (and how to measure the impact)
The types of transitions we all face
The pain of letting go
What I’ve learnt about myself in times of transition
What happens when we hit a crossroads (and what we can do)
You’ll also hear about how to measure the impact a transition moment is having on you and why it’s important not to underestimate its effect. Next week, we’ll talk more about the opportunities that can come from times of change.
Here are some final thoughts for you to take into your day before I sign off:
1 quote: “The sooner we let go of holding on, the sooner we can hold on to the beauty of what's unfolding before us. Nothing was ever meant to stay the same forever.” ― Julieanne O'Connor
1 stat: According to Gallup, 51% of us are actively seeking a new season in our life by looking for a new job.
1 question: What are you currently holding on to, even when you know inside it’s time to let go?
Love,
Hannah x