Once, a doctor told me to start warming up for runs—to stretch first, start slow, and transitioninto it. Her advice made me wince.
“I likejumping out the door and starting my run," I told her.
She looked me dead in the eye and said, “Then your ‘run’ is a lot like what we ask patients to do when we stress test their heart.”
Okay… message received.
Because here's the thing—when I do take time to warm up, I can run a lot farther.
I had to remind myself of that last week, as I was transitioning back into work after the holiday.I felt clunky, like I was slower than usual at answering emails and leading meetings.
But then I remembered— I just need time to warm up.
So cheers to the transitions. That first email you write on a Monday morning, as you're still transitioning from the weekend. That first step you take when heading in a new direction.
I know it can feel slow. It's easy to feel impatient.
But give yourself permission to warm up.
Dr. Sarah Glova, Co-Editor of 8&21 and Fairweather Jogger
Life lessons on transitions
Winter break is a welcome end to the fall semester.
But transitioning out of the liminal state of winter break into spring semester used to be a frantic whirlwind. I'd spend the last few days of my precious winter break hurriedly prepping my spring semester of teaching.
However, I learned to follow some valuable advice from a former colleague, Lynn Setzer, who advised me to prep my full year of teaching in the more lenient days of summer (instead of cramming the process into the short and busy winter holiday season).
Of course, no amount of planning will guarantee a smooth transition from family holiday time back to work-family-life juggle (no matter how much I wish it could!). The start of the spring semester still brings with it the challenge of returning to my work routine.
But I can choose to make that transition time a less overwhelming by not packing too much work into the too-short break.
Dr. Sarah Egan Warren, Co-Editor of 8&21 and Appreciator of Life Lessons
The beautiful discomfort of being betwixt and between
If we understand transitions properly, however, we can curb our natural tendency to fight against them—a futile battle, given their inevitability. Indeed, with a shift in mindset, we can make transitions into a source of meaning and transcendence.
The current period of transition in my life reminds me of fishing in the ocean. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and would fish off the rocks on the Oregon coast in the summers. I learned as a kid that the best time to catch fish was during a “falling tide”—the period when the tide is going out, or, you might say, transitioning. That’s when plankton and bait fish are stirred up, so game fish are biting like crazy.
If you put in your line, you’ll pull them out, one after another. Practically the only mistake you can make is not to have your line in the water.
- Excerpts from the article, “The Clocklike Regularity of Major Life Changes” by Arthur C. Brooks, published in The Atlantic, Sept. 10, 2020.
The transition
tran·si·tion (n):
a change or shift from one state, subject, place, etc. to another.
a period or phase in which such a change or shift is happening.
something that links one state, subject, place, etc. to another: a connecting part or piece.
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