why are transitions so challenging?

A few years ago I realized something about myself. I hate transitions. The concept of moving from one job to another, one relationship to another, and let’s be real….one task to another was dreadful and borderline terrifying. If analysis paralysis had a head cheerleader, it would probably have been me. I could analyse myself into being stuck in one place with the best of them. Not because I didn’t want to grow, or didn’t have ambitions, but because sameness meant security, right? If I know what it is, I couldn’t possibly be hurt by it. I have less chance of getting it wrong. Or perhaps I can quietly work at this same thing until it’s absolutely perfect and then I’ll come out of hiding. This was the place that I (and I know I’m not fully alone in this) existed in, on repeat. Because transitions ARE CHALLENGING. But, as I started doing my own inner work, I had another realization. Perhaps the fact that the challenge exists isn’t the problem. The problem was in my relationship with the word challenge. In my mind it held a dense veil of negativity. A challenge was scary, a challenge was hard, a challenge could break you. However, the Webster’s definition of challenge is anything but a scary monster. Challenge is defined as:

a stimulating task or problem

a calling to account or into question : PROTEST

So in fact, everything about this word “challenge” is pretty invigorating, no? “A CALLING TO ACCOUNT OR INTO QUESTION.” That is not a sentence of fear. That is a sentence of exploration and truth!

So, how can we call into question the status quo of our day to day to step outside of what we ARE doing into what we CAN do and then what we WILL do, and later into what we have DONE? How do we question some of our habits that have prevented us from moving forward. How do we protest that space where we are stuck. How do we go from being scared of a challenge to embracing it. It starts with an embrace……And then from there we are in control of what’s next.