Transitions are everywhere these days. In my work I have noticed that many of my clients are going through change and / or transitions. When I point this out, clients often get curious about the difference between the two.

Here’s my answer: Change is what happens externally, for example, a new job, a new project, or a new relationship. Transition is the inner process that accompanies the change, how you feel, where you get stuck, what you find hard to let go of, what you look forward to, who you want to become as you embrace the change.

Transitions are an invitation to a new you and require reflection, learning and growth. When they are navigated well, they are often much more than change, they are transformations. In other words a new version of you has been born; bigger, more capable, wiser, better somehow.

My daughter flew the nest in September and I used that change as a transition moment to look at who I am and what I want next. It triggered a whole journey of looking in, helping me to decide where I want to focus my energy and attention.One of the ways it manifested was the creation of my new website. Authenticity matters to me; I work with my clients on a daily basis to help them separate their ‘conditioned’ self from their ‘true’ self. Personally, I have always wanted my ‘public’ persona, out here on social media, to reflect who I really am. One of the reasons I’m so happy with the new site is that it feels truly representative of who I am and the work I do.

My website partners in crime included creative director Wayne Ford who found my visual voice for me (I love my logo!), front end designer Callum Jones who built an effective site in a gracious and effortless manner, and photographer Sarah Bates who helped me to properly relax in front of the camera, not my natural habitat! I am grateful for their expertise and even more for their care, attention and love during the process.

I also learned heaps. My key takeaway is that writing clarifies and reveals my own thinking, making things that were unconscious conscious. For me, articulating points to be clearer and informative requires honing and cutting out everything that is not needed. I think it was Einstein who said, ‘I’m sorry I wrote a long letter, I didn’t have time to write a short one’. So true!

Like all transitions, this is an evolution in my process. If transitions are the beginning of a ‘new identity’, the newer me will write more, put my thoughts out there more and share my learning and insights as they emerge.

Let me start with a question:

• What was your last change and did you use it as an opportunity to transition?

• What did you learn and how is that informing the new you?

• If your change was just a change, what would support you to make it a transition moment?

Transitioning well is a skill that can be learned. More on that in future posts, no doubt.