The Fog of Transition by Mary Ann Bailey, MCMuch of my coaching is spent helping people in transition make decisions regarding
next phase of their lives. Some of them are looking for their next professional path. Some are trying to figure out relationship issues, and others are wondering if they really could achieve a long-held dream.
The decisions that my clients make around these issues are obviously important ones, yet making decisions in middle of a life transition can sometimes be a little complicated.
Setting Sail I compare going through a life transition to setting sail on a foggy sea. As you begin your transition, you can still see shoreline. At this point, you may not even realize you are in a transition. You are very excited about possibilities of changing a part of your life; and you can hardly wait to set sail and explore distant shores. Yet, as you sail further out to sea, or further into your transition, you lose sight of familiar shoreline. The fog begins to settle in around you. You can't make out where you are going, and you can no longer see where you came from.
This feeling of drifting at sea with no port in sight can be very unnerving for many of us. We live in a culture that wants fast and definitive answers to our questions. We want quick solutions to our problems. And we want fast and easy ways out of fog of transition.
The Discomfort of Uncertainty So, when we find ourselves in middle of this kind of uncertainty, it can be very easy to give in to discomfort of not knowing exactly where we are going or what we need to do next. We hear critical voices telling us that we have made a mistake, or that we don't really have what it takes to find our way through fog.
We begin to feel anxious and notice that our resolve to making change is slowly slipping away. It is at this point when it can be easy to decide to quit journey and return to comfort of our old and familiar shoreline.
But if we let voices of fear and doubt override voices coming from our heart, we are apt to make decisions about our future that may not serve us well in long run.
One of my clients, Anne, had always had an interest in graphic design. She recently had left her corporate job to pursue her life-long dream of starting her own graphics business.
In beginning she was very motivated. She talked to people, gathered information, and started planning what she needed to do. Yet, as time went by and she found herself running into little snags, she began to question her initial decision.
