4 SIGNS YOU’RE READY TO MAKE A BIG LIFE TRANSITION
When we think of what it means to make a big life transition, our minds may recall friends and family that have changed careers, moved across country, or made a lifelong commitment to another. Or, we may consider those times in our lives when we took a leap of faith to try our hands at something new. Whether it’s through our firsthand experiences of change, or the experiences of our friends and family, we know that life transitions are rife with feelings of nervousness mixed with joy, and questioning of the unknown.
Making a big life transition can feel so risky because we can’t be sure of the consequences of our choices. Yet, when it is time to change there are signs that tell us to stop, reflect on our lives, and consider our current direction. Here are four signs that may be telling you that you are ready to make a big life transition:
1. You can’t get no satisfaction
There are times when the things we do no longer provide us with a sense of joy, accomplishment, meaning or satisfaction. During these moments it may feel as if we are shedding old behaviors, habits, likes, attachments, tastes, and general ways of being that no longer meet our needs. These inner transformations may call for us to change our outer circumstances to reflect the changes that are occurring within. How are your inner transformations asking you to make a big life transition?
2. You’ve checked off every item on your to-do list
Many of us hold mental checklists that benchmark where we want to be at certain points in our lives. Completing an item on these lists provides us with a momentary sense of accomplishment and joy, until the time comes when we realize that we’ve hit an imaginary ceiling that we created for ourselves. At this point, we may find ourselves saying, now what?, as our feeling of achievement gives way to yearning—which asks us to see what’s beyond the limits we have created for ourselves. If you have come to a point in life where you are saying, now what do I do?, give yourself permission to discover your life beyond the list.
3. The life you lead seems contradictory to the life you desire
When we are young, we often hold images of who we want to be as adults. When people asked us as children what we wanted to be when we grow up, how many of us said that we wanted to be teachers, astronauts, writers, wizards, doctors, firemen, presidents, scientists, or athletes, only to find that our dreams gave way to more practical realities as we got older? How many of us are still sacrificing our dreams and life desires for lives that create dissonance within us? Take a moment to sit in contemplation and ask yourself if you’ve traded in your dreams for a life that is not yours. If you have, it may be time to consider a change.
4. Your intuition is guiding you to change
We have all experienced a feeling in our gut that tells us when something is wrong, right, good bad, or ugly. Sometimes these gut feelings indicate when it is time to fly, fight or freeze, or reveal when it’s time to take a risk, make a move, or just move on. Intuition seems to have no rhyme, reason, or discernible logic to it; yet it can be such a powerful force in our everyday lives that we are compelled to listen to it, or else face the consequences. For example, how many of us have been on our way home from work and our intuition says, make a left here, yet we ignore it and end up delayed in bumper-to-bumper traffic. This is all to say, that you can be leading a stable and steady life until the day comes when the voice of your intuition whispers in your ear saying it’s time to make a left and do something different, or else live a life that feels incomplete.
Are you ready to make a big life transition but don’t know where to begin? If you need help, contact me at info@jerrilynblack.com.
Warmly,
Jerrilyn