Mastering Transitions
All throughout the day we experience multiple transitions from one activity to the next. Transition happens in the spaces between key moments in our day. Our lives are full of these moments…
Shutting off the alarm
Feet hitting the floor
The morning routine
Making the commute
Walking across the parking lot
Entering the office building
Pulling up to the desk
Checking emails
Returning phone messages
Attending the first meeting
More meetings
More emails, texts, and phone calls
Lunch Break
Unexpected or awkward conversations
Work evaluations
The evening commute
Greeting the wife and kids
Dinner
Family interactions
The night routine
Bedtime
Think of your transitions. How you process your specific and unique transitions from one moment to the next will determine how you will respond and actually feel throughout the day. We get to choose our responses and feelings. Therefore, we must make transitions with intention in order to summon energy and emotional intelligence. When we forfeit intention, we become prone to negativity, pessimism, and a victim-mentality. Instead of being led around on the leash of negative perspective and emotions, we must learn to get control of the reigns and lead ourselves well. We must intentionally harness optimism as we transition into each new setting. We can be proactive before stress hits, or we can let stress overcome us unexpected.
Instead of letting things trigger us (reactive), we must initiate how we want to respond (proactive). We must literally learn to master the transitions. One effective way I have been able to make strong transitions is to establish specific prompts throughout my day. Creating these prompts have helped me not to carry negative emotions, low energy, bad attitude, pride, disappointment, anger, or frustration (to name a few) into the next moment. Here are few practical prompts I practice when making daily transitions:
Prayer Prompt
This is the prompt I most often use. Here, I whisper a brief prayer to help me enter the next situation with my trust firmly set on God (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). This relaxes me and gives me a quick reset. When I feel anxious or overwhelmed, I allow the Holy Spirit to guide me through each transition. Many times, after whispering a prayer or praise, I remind myself that God is with me, that He has my back, and that it’s going to turn out great. This fills me with confidence for the next moment or activity.
Breathe Prompt
As I am leaving a meeting and going into the next or ending a phone call and dialing another, before immediately making the transition, I will take a moment to close my eyes, relax my shoulders, and take a few slow, deep breaths. I may even slip off to the restroom to breathe out a quick prayer or personal affirmation in order to release any tension or negativity from a previous event. This helps me to effectively harness my faith, activate my energy, set my focus, and engage my mind for the task at hand.
Post-it Prompt
One powerful thing I have done over the years is to tack post-it notes with positive messages, inspiring quotes, or scriptures on my bathroom mirror and workspace to remind me to stay positive and trust God. If you don’t use post-it’s, you could set several calendar reminders or create a few text alerts in your mobile phone to remind yourself to breathe, pray, relax, and leave the previous moment, meeting, phone call, awkward-stressful encounter, or all-consuming task to be dealt with later.
Door Prompt
When I walk through a door, I leave any negative or discouraging energy in the previous encounter. I enter with joy and focus on the others present. I smile and tell myself, “I will find the good in this room. I will be a contributor both in presence, attitude, and creativity. I will focus on the strengths in my team and express my affirmation to them. I refuse to internalize everything I feel or believe everything I think. I will not assume that my emotions are certainties. I will give grace to everyone at the table.”
Touch prompt
People are not robots. They NEED connection. I try to always approach people with some form of appropriate, physical touch (i.e. friendly hug, firm handshake, fist bump, pat on the back, side hug, high five, slap on the shoulder, etc.). Some have even created a unique and fun handshake to express a special relationship. Touch helps to immediately foster warmth, facilitate joy, create community, and break the ice. Be sure to properly assess your environment. Certain situations call for professional behavior.
Gift prompt
Gratitude is the lens through which we see most clearly. When anything good, positive, or pleasurable happens throughout the day, embrace it as a gift from God and respond with some expression of thanks (I.e. “Thank you Lord,” “Wow,” “That was awesome,” Etc.) Go back to the first prompt above and breathe a sigh of satisfaction and gratefulness. In doing this, you may be surprised at how many gifts God gives you (James 1:17). The best way to picture our lives is in a golden frame of gratitude.
Visual prompt
Visual prompts help me cope with momentary stress or negative emotions. I’m a public speaker. It’s a significant part of my profession. This can be anxiety inducing at times. Sometimes, when I’m standing in front of a crowd, I briefly imagine everyone wearing Hawaiian shirts. This reminds me that they deal with the same issues I do and that I have nothing to prove. Therefore, I can address them without trying to prove anything. They want to hear from me, and they need what I have. Boom!
Friend Prompt
Come circumstances call for outside support. Sometimes, I don’t feel I have the emotional capacity to cope with certain situations. This is dependent on several factors. Perhaps I didn’t get enough sleep the night before, or I’m under the weather. Maybe the situation is just too overwhelming to handle alone. That’s when I reach out to a trusted friend via text, phone, or even personally if they’re close by and get advice or ask them to pray. Sometimes, all it takes is a friendly voice to make the shift.
