Transitioning is difficult and takes time. Here, some hard-earned insights to help you move to the next stage in your life.
I sat, waiting for yet another interview.The office was cold.Colder still was my frame of mind. A year ago, I was an executive, the one making decisions.The economy had eliminated my position, along with thousands others.Now I waited to interview for a job that paid half as much.My biggest obstacle was myself.I was having difficulty convincing someone that I’d make an amazing admin assistant.
As I sat there, I watched outside as the promised storm moved in.In one big swoosh; a tree suddenly shed bucket-loads of leaves.“Oh, I wish I could shed my leaves as easily as that tree,” I thought.All the mannerisms I’d acquired for management, my ‘leaves’, were now getting in the way of even the easiest jobs.Then another gust of wind hit and I realized.The tree wasn’t letting go of its leaves easily.Although the leaves were dead, the tree wasn’t capable of just ‘letting go.’
It takes storm after fall storm for the trees to shed their leaves.Even then, many trees will hold onto a lone dead leaf throughout the winter cold, as if remembering who they once were.It isn’t until the new growth of spring that the tree will have the ability to finally let go of that final dead leaf.
Transitioning is difficult and takes time.
First, there are the rumblings of a transition to come – our leaves lose some of their luster.Before we know it, we are discolored all over.Everything in our life suddenly reminds us of what ‘once was’ instead of what ‘could be’.Then the storms of life arrive.Sometimes, if we are lucky, these storms are nothing but gentle breezes that we respond to easily.Often, however, it takes a few power outages and capsizing events.Then we find ourselves in the calm, cold of winter, waiting for the new growth of spring.This cold part of winter is the best time for pruning.It is the time for redefining and discovering the real heart of a plant that has gone wild.Pruning gives the new growth direction.
