Personal Transition points: 7 questions
Change is part of life.
The art of living, in many ways is the art of living change.
Finding ways to navigate and embrace the changes being so much easier said, than done.
The feeling of being swept away with change can be a disorientating and overwhelming, making whatever change it is seem bigger than it might be in reality.
But it can be simple things that make the difference.
Like the art of asking simple questions.
Giving yourself the time and space to reflect and explore them be surprisingly anchoring.
I’ve found myself repeatedly sharing the following set of questions with people who are facing transitions points, or know they need to change something significant in their (working*) life.
Transition points can offer a unique window of time when you have a different perspective and can provide an opportunity to clarify things for yourself.
But it’s too easy to not make the most of this space or time.
And it’s hard to be honest with yourself.
You might want to take these question prompts and riff through them in an hour, or take one a day over a week.
Chat them through with someone.
Or be things that you muse on in the background.
These questions might be good to refer back to when you find yourself in an expected or unexpected moment or change or you’re just anticipating a significant change:
- What are the reoccurring threads and themes been popping up in your life and work over this last (period/phase/decade)?
- Why do they matter to you?
- No, why do you REALLY give a shit about these things?
- What’s your ambition for these areas/themes over the next period/phase/decade?
- What does that say about you and your role/position now?
- What the most courageous/outrageous/scary thing you can do to bring these things to life?
- What’s the support ecosystem you want and need around you to make things real?
There’s no right or wrong answer to these questions — just an invitation to people to consider them for themselves.
I did this through revisiting old notebooks and doodles. Jenny Ross used them and started mapping out some of her threads and themes.:
‘The questions opened my mind to what a more fulfilling future would look like. It uncovered ideas or seeds of ideas that were latent — all I had to do was look and start planting’ Jenny Ross
This is all part of the growing infrastructure for living change that is emerging in this moment in time.
*Of course living change, means work and life boundaries are often more fluid and porous that the convention work/ life boundaries
