Imagine if you had a sore throat and had never heard of the stages of a cold? What would you think? How would you feel?
I know if it were me I’d be pretty scared and confused, because sore throats can be incredibly painful, and I would assume something was very wrong. But, knowing about colds, and especially my pattern that almost always starts with a sore throat for a day or two before moving on to congestion, coughing etc., would make a huge difference. I still wouldn’t be happy about having to deal with the sore throat, but the panic would be gone, and I’d do what I could to ease the pain and get healthy again as fast as I could.
If you are experiencing change this year, no matter what it is, you will find yourself working through a process with very specific stages. Whether a transition is personal or professional, intentional or thrown upon you, positive or negative, it often starts with periods of panic, confusion and exhaustion.
Nobody tells you about the exhaustion, and it can take you completely off guard. But it happens for a reason, and that is because you are using several times your normal amount of energy just thinking, you are outside of your comfort zone, and you are unable to do what your brain desperately wants to do – which is to run mostly on autopilot.
Recently in our transition class, we went over the Aspyrre “Stages of Change” model, which explains five distinct stages of transition, how it feels to be in each stage, what you can do to effectively manage yourself in each stage, and how to know when you are moving from one stage to the next. Similar to knowing the stages of a cold, I find that it can be really helpful to know what to expect as you navigate change, and so I’d love to share this 25 minute overview of the model and our discussion:
Also – as a note – in this class I refer to two other models of transition and here they are for reference:
- William Bridges – Transitions
- Seth Godin – The Dip
Enjoy!
