Transitions are a bigger part of this life than we realize.
Have you ever seen the jellybean video on YouTube? It’s called “The Time You Have (in Jellybeans).” If you haven’t seen it at least once, you should check it out here.
It’s the one by Ze Frank where he uses jellybeans to deliver a powerful wake-up call about the time we have left in this one precious life. You know—the one we so readily let others prioritize for us.
If we slice up our life’s pie, we might be surprised how much of the big, fun stuff gets short-changed and crowded out by others’ priorities.
Until you think about it, sleeping for a third of your life doesn’t sound right.
It doesn’t. But thankfully, I was reminded of that fact by a mattress advertisement. Then, in the same week, I’m reading Greg McKeown’s 1-Minute Wednesday newsletter where he asks, “How much of your life is spent in transitions?”
Shoot, I don’t know. Do you? Have you even thought about it? I wouldn’t imagine it’s all that much.
After all, most of life is fairly constant.
Apparently not says Greg. So, I read on because now he’s got me thinking…
Are you ready? Here’s your nugget of knowledge or at least the one I picked up reading his newsletter…
“In a recent study for his book Life is in the Transitions, author Bruce Feiler found that on average people will go through 3-5 major transitions after reaching adulthood. The average length people spend in these transitions is 5 years. This means half our adult life will be spent in transition.”
Life is in the Transitions happens to be on my bookshelf. I haven’t read it (yet), but I will since it was recommended by two different friends recently who both were raving about the ideas presented in the book.
Does it surprise you, though? That half our adult life is spent in one sort of transition or another? I was surprised if not shocked!
Transition is just a nicer word for change.
Nobody likes change. And transitioning to something or someplace new and unfamiliar is no dance in the park.
Bruce says, “The idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated.” And that means we’re in for a whole lot more transitions as we make it down the road of life.
So back to 1-Minute Wednesday, Greg points out that, “Change and transition are uncomfortable for all of us, but because so much of our life is spent in transition, if we don’t learn to embrace and navigate them, we will miss out on much of our life.”
If we really do spend half our lives in transitions, maybe we should build some embracing and navigating skills.
That’s something I’ll be looking into for future LifeUntucked® posts. Plus, I’m already realizing many of the same rules for navigating change apply to managing transitions.
I’m not trying to oversimplify matters—okay, okay, maybe I am. So, what we really want to do is make any transition smoother than it otherwise might be if we just charge on ahead.
I can use our move to Santa Fe as an example.
First, call it what it is. I had convinced myself that because we had planned this move over fifteen or so years, and this was where we wanted to live in this next season of life—the transition would be easy.
I had this romantic idea that moving across the country to a new city, building a house, and getting used to a completely new everything… all would magically fall into place.
When I finally realized that our new life would take some time and real effort and that we were in a completely new season of life. I began to embrace that we were going through a transition. And, that transition might take a while… and there might be some not-so-fun parts along with the new and really amazing parts.
Then, give yourself “space and grace” (Greg’s words). When you’re in a transition, recognize that it’s no time to double-burn the ol’ candle. Human nature always seems to want us to cut out the self-care part when the going gets tough.
Rest, downtime, and sleep all pay dividends by giving your heart, body, and brain what they need to endure under stress.
Sure, there’s more… and we’ll get to that.
Until then, embrace the transitions and make room for what matters most to you.
Be untucked.
p.s. If you needed this today, let me know in a comment. Thanks!
Copyright © 2023 Jeff Meister – All Rights Reserved
Definitely needed this today Jeff! As you know we are having a major transition right now. Oiy! But trying to handle things but also doing some fun things. For instance David is fishing today with a good friend. After we have been packing boxes, sending them off via UPS. Packing cars, selling art. It has been as easy as we could make it. Looking forward to the next chapter.😘 Sheila