Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 309 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

5 Tips to Navigate Life's Transitions

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 309 of our trek, and yesterday we visited the 6 essential waypoints to live a better life. Today on our trek, we will discover “5 Tips to Navigate Life’s Transitions.”

Thank you so much for coming along with me each day as we explore and consume these “nuggets of wisdom.” These bits of wisdom help us to live a rich and satisfying life while creating a living legacy.  While some of our daily treks are a multi-part series, you can join us at any time and start along with us from that point on. If you would like to listen to any of the past episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal. You can also subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Google Play so each day’s trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

We are broadcasting this podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. On Sunday, we headed back south to our Indian Trail, North Carolina home. We dropped our grandson Kip off at his parents in Charlotte and did our weekly grocery shopping before arriving home. We will be at Home2 for a little less than two weeks before heading back to Marietta in mid-April. There is a transition for us each time as we travel back and forth every month, but we realize that life is full of transitions. And, we are thankful for being able to do the type of work that is location independent.

Thinking about transitions, certain seasons of life brings with it major transitions, and today we will explore the…

5 Tips to Navigate Life’s Transitions

Change is inevitable and at times, those changes come in the form of major life transitions. Sometimes the transitions we face are welcome and joyous, such as graduating, getting married, having a new baby, starting a business, or moving to a new house. We feel excited about the possibilities ahead and look forward to the positive changes these events will bring to our lives.

However, transitions we don’t want or didn’t ask for often come our way as well. Divorce, losing a job, a business failure, sudden illness or injury, and the loss of a loved one are all examples of major transitions that do not initially appear favorable or desired. These changes can leave us feeling understandably angry, anxious, and depressed.

Regardless of the circumstances, navigating any kind of life transition often causes us to feel like a fish out of water. It leaves us in an awkward emotional place that demands us to respond in new ways and possibly even adapt to a different way of life. We often long for the way things used to be. Here are some tips for navigating these unfamiliar times and creating a new “normal.”

1. Acknowledge the Transition

Be honest with yourself about how the transition affects your daily life, old patterns, and routines. When we are unable to rely on our former expectations or daily routines, it can leave us feeling unstable and overwhelmed. Fighting the transitions that occur in our lives can cause greater frustration and keep us from adapting to its new aspects.

2. Expect to Feel

Any life transition, whether wanted or unwanted, leaves us with many conflicting emotions. A new baby is a joyful and exciting addition to life, but can also make new parents feel anxious and overwhelmed until settling into new routines and ways of life with the child.

Feelings of excitement, anxiety, depression, and anger are common when adapting to life transitions. Additionally, it is natural to have feelings of grief and loss as we move for...