Two years and eight months ago, I found myself abruptly launched into a prolonged transition that continues to this day. The job I'd held for the past five years suddenly disappeared when my boss was tapped to join the fledgling Obama administration as solicitor general. (You may have heard of her: She's now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.)
As is so often the case with major change, there was much ambivalence. While I was anxious about the plunge into unemployment, I was also ready to move on. On the one hand, the news came as a welcome push. On the other, I was freaking out.
But whatever my reaction on a given day, there was one thing I never imagined from the vantage point of April 2009: That this transition would go on and on in precisely the way it has.
In retrospect, I shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, my layoff came at the peak of the great recession. Still, I had great references, great skills and a great education. I somehow assumed they'd ease my way. In large part, I was wrong.
Which is different from saying I have regrets. The more I learn about transitions, the more I realize that what I've experienced is completely normal. Just because something is painful and hard doesn't mean it can't yield fruit.
Years ago, I took a course with psychologist Robert Kegan at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, and one thing he said stuck with me. (Well, actually, many things he said stuck with me, but this one is relevant here.) He said, and I paraphrase from memory: "Growth comes from stretch-not-break challenges."
In other words, hard times -- if they are too hard -- can crush us. When they're just right, they may be uncomfortable, but they also move us forward.
One of the things most helpful to me in navigating this transition has been getting a better handle on what to expect. Over the past two-plus years, I've spent a lot of hours delving into the subject, and for the record, here are three of my most useful takeaways.
1. Transitions take a long time.
Three years, five years, seven years -- these are the time frames that popped up again and again in my reading. In New Passages, bestselling author Gail Sheehy ballparks two years as the minimum time needed to stabilize following a layoff or other "life accident."
2. Transitions have a predictable structure.
Transitions guru William Bridges -- author of the groundbreaking Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes -- has identified a three-part structure reflected in every major life transition: an ending, followed by a period of confusion and distress, followed, in turn, by a new beginning.
In Finding Your Own North Star -- a book that I count among my personal favorites -- life coach Martha Beck describes a four-part "change cycle": A shocking "catalytic event" is followed by "death and rebirth," "dreaming and scheming," "the hero's saga" (a trial-and-error implementation stage), and finally "the promised land," or equilibrium regained.
3. Transitions aren't linear.
It's tempting to think that transitions can be neat and orderly, that we can figure out a game plan and simply execute it. In fact, transitions are almost always messy, punctuated with false starts and re-groupings.
In Working Identity, an extensive study of successful mid-career career changers, business professor Herminia Ibarra concluded that the "plan and execute model" is not realistic. Rather, successful transitions tend to adopt a "test and learn" approach, following a "first-act-and-then-think" sequence.
Well into the third year of my transition, I'm finally starting to feel that I'm turning a corner. I can't say for sure that the feeling will last, but for now, I'm enjoying it.
Looking back, it's fascinating to see how little I could have predicted where my various steps were leading. For better or worse, our transitions seem to shape us at least as much as we shape them.