CREATING THE NEXT PART OF YOUR LIFE

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Transitions are often described as something we need to “get through.”

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I see them differently.

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A transition can be one of the relatively rare periods in life when we have permission—and sometimes no choice but—to reconsider assumptions we have carried for years.

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Who am I now?

What still fits?

What doesn't?

And how do I want to live from here?

 

This is particularly powerful around the transition away from a career.

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For decades, work may have provided structure, challenge, community, recognition, status and identity. Even when we are ready to leave it, we sometimes underestimate how many different roles it has been playing in our lives.

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The question after a career is therefore larger than: What am I going to do with my time?

It becomes: What will make this stage of my life feel rich, engaged and meaningful?

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The answers vary enormously.

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For one person it might involve another kind of work. For another, family, travel, learning, creativity, friendship, contribution, spiritual life, community—or combinations that would never have fit into an earlier life.

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The goal isn't to construct another résumé.

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It is to discover what feels alive now.

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MAKING ROOM FOR WHAT COMES NEXT

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There is no single right way to move from one stage of life to another.​

 

For some people, it is helpful to begin exploring what might come next while they are still working—to develop interests, relationships and possibilities that can gradually become part of a new life.​

 

For others, that approach doesn't work at all.​

 

They may need to leave the old life behind before they can begin to imagine the new one.

 

After years of schedules, responsibilities, expectations and a well-established identity, there can be real value in a period of open space—in not immediately knowing what comes next.​

 

There is an old Japanese expression, “Empty cup, new tea.”​

 

Before something new can enter, we may first need to make room for it.​

 

That can mean letting go not only of a career, but of some of the habits, assumptions and expectations that accompanied it: how we measure accomplishment, how we use our time, what we think we should be doing, even some of our ideas about who we are.​

 

The empty space that follows can initially feel uncomfortable.

 

But it can also create room for curiosity, experimentation and possibilities that would have been difficult to see while the old life was still occupying the cup.​

 

For some people, the transition is about building a bridge from what has been to what comes next.​

 

For others, it is about emptying the cup and allowing some time before deciding what new tea belongs in it.​

 

There is no formula. We can work with whichever approach—or combination of approaches—fits you.

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EXPERIENCE WITH POST-CAREER TRANSITION

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This work has been a recurring theme throughout my coaching career.​

 

I currently co-facilitate The Bonus Round at Modern Elder Academy in Santa Fe and Baja, a program for people transitioning from significant careers and exploring what might come next.​

 

For several years, I facilitated a program for retiring partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers, helping them prepare for the psychological and practical transition from highly demanding professional lives into a new stage.​

 

And for 19 years, I facilitated Hudson Institute's LifeForward program, which helped participants step back from the momentum of their lives and consider what they wanted the next chapter to become.

 

These experiences have reinforced something I have also learned personally:​

 

A meaningful next chapter is rarely found by simply replacing one full calendar with another.​

 

It involves paying attention to what matters now.

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OTHER TRANSITIONS

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Although the transition away from a career is an important part of my work, it is not the only one.

 

I also work with people facing changes in relationships, family life, place, identity and priorities—or simply the internal realization that they want to live differently.

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Sometimes nothing on the outside has changed at all.

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The person has.

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HOW COACHING WORKS

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Our conversations are both reflective and practical.

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We may explore your history and the patterns, habits, stories and values that have shaped you. We may look at assumptions or beliefs that are limiting your choices. We may identify things you have neglected or long wanted to explore.  We may explore what can only be faintly seen, if seen at all.

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And we experiment.

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Coaching engagements typically extend over approximately six months, with sessions scheduled often enough to maintain momentum while leaving time between conversations for reflection and experimentation.

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Sessions can take place by video, or in person in Santa Barbara.