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Transition is a perfect time to question, wonder, reflect, notice, and consider. It may also be a time to learn patience, acceptance, letting go and trust. All of these wonderful life lessons that continually knock at our door in all kinds of ways.

By asking questions we can step back and get some distance from our emotions. We can get clarity about what our priorities are and see the big picture. We can also open a door that lets us examine our new situation.

We all start a transition in a place of uncertainty and unfamiliarity. Then we must at some point take stock of what options are available to us, such as, what we can do and what will help us move forward. As time passes and we move through transition our feelings about the circumstances will change many times.

During a transition time our emotional maze will be unique and the key is to keep trying different tactics until we begin to discover what works in order to maintain our physical and emotional health.

Emotions

Summer Reading List

HeadTrash: Cleaning out the junk that stands between you and success by Tish Squillaro and Timothy Thomas

The authors explore the thought patterns and emotional tendencies that hinder our ability to respond to business issues in a productive and professional way. Whether you are acting out of; fear, arrogance, insecurity, control, anger, guilt or paranoia, your decision-making process is negatively affected.

Our goals are an explicit commitment and they help us focus our attention on a target. If we keep that destination in mind and we know where we are going then we are free to make the most of where we are now. The primary purpose of having a goal is to enhance the enjoyment of the present.

The ability to quit fully is a valuable tool to living well. Successful people have developed this important life skill to know how to quit and how to persist. Sometimes a goal doesn’t deliver what we expected and doesn’t fit into our new priorities. Learn to articulate your goals and anticipate when to change them.

When we fail to meet our goals it can be a very daunting time. Failure can damage our confidence and self-esteem. The hardest goals to quit are the ones that look successful on the surface, but leave us feeling unhappy.

You are probably unaware that your mind is filled with expectations that control much of what you do. For some it’s unlikely that they know how their expectations evolved. It usually starts with a desire, which becomes a goal, then an assumption and finally an expectation. These expectations can create pressure, limit your imagination and blind you to possibilities.

Goals can focus your actions and provide direction for your life and career. People set goals to satisfy a need, provide a benefit or to solve a problem. Being able to clearly explain why you want to achieve a goal will provide you with power and strength. The more clearly you can communicate your goal, the more likely others will understand your motivation to reaching it.

From my hundreds of hours of coaching I’ve found that there are three approaches that when used together can help people reach their goals. The way that we often find out about these approaches is that we try the opposite of them, fail to reach our goals and then reflect on what could have worked in our lessons learned.

By reviewing many of our learning journeys we come across familiar advice that seems to be obvious but at the time of our action step to reach our goal, we dismissed it.

If you are looking for a way to change how you see yourself, the collaborative mindset offers a powerful set of assumptions and behaviours that can be successfully integrated into your thinking, decisions and actions.

As 2016 approaches there is a sense of new beginning on the horizon. We start to wonder, what is it that excites us about the New Year? What goals or resolutions are we going to make? How are we going to change our habits and patterns to fulfill all those great intentions to; lose weight, eat healthy or get to the gym?