Navigating the transition fog
Hello,
Long time. Perhaps my longest hiatus from writing ever. Wait, let me correct it. Hiatus from posting online and not writing. Jotting down thoughts, notes, and anecdotes in my physical journal has continued, like always :).
So, where was I?
I think — on an adventure!
When you are going through a journey that makes you excited and anxious at the same time, chances are, you are in the midst of an adventure.
And joining the marketing team of an organization when it was gearing up for one of its biggest GTM motions ever, has actually been nothing less than an adventure. New category narrative, new products, new pricing, and more. It’s been a few months since I took up a new role and what an exciting journey this has been so far. Especially because of the category and the talented folks I am getting to work with.
But that’s not all. There were a lot of other “new” that I had to navigate through this year — both in my personal and professional life.
To start with, we relocated to a different country. Yet again!
Change is messy
New job, new country, new school for the child, new household setup, and a new environment altogether.
Sounds exciting? Theoretically yes. But in reality, it has been messy. Full of uncertainties, fear, and a truckload of work. Well, literally a truckload too with all the relocation and household movements that we have gone through in the last few years.
Going through major life transitions is never easy. At least not for me. It’s like trying to navigate to your destination through thick fog and haze. You know the route, you are looking forward to reaching the destination but the path is unclear and challenging.
Navigating uncertainty
And how do we navigate a fog?
By just going through it.
Yes, there is no other way than -
Just go through it.
One stretch at a time.
Going slow helps.
Especially when we can’t see what lies ahead.
It also gives us time to observe and react.
Focus is important.
And if we can’t focus, step aside.
Take a temporary halt.
Get back again, when we think we are ready or when the fog has cleared.
This has been my mantra while going through the transition fog multiple times now. It’s disconcerting but eventually, the destination becomes visible.
The road ahead
Our new household is up & running now. The child is enjoying his new school. We are not fully adjusted to the new life, but progress has been made.
And professionally, I think I can see my next few milestones and the path ahead. I am on a journey that seems to be promising and enriching. A lot of learnings on the way that I think would be worth sharing with you.
To start with, let me do a follow-up post on navigating transition at work. This new role required me to adapt to changes in all possible parameters that appear in a transition matrix.
Resources worth your time
While I work on the new post, in the meantime let me share two resources that helped me during the first few weeks of my job:
- The First 90 days by Michael D. Watkins — It’s a leadership book that gets recommended a lot when you are moving to a new role. I am not sure why I didn’t read it earlier. Finished it recently and I think it was worth the hype. Now those who have read my blogs earlier know that I am not a big fan of reading non-fiction. I read them but in many cases, I have felt the 400-page book could have been presented in a 400-word blog. There are definitely some good ones that leave you with actionable insights and I think The First 90 Days would qualify for that list. It prepares you with some practical action items during your initial days of transition.
- A talk by Brenda Reynold — FOG = Freaking Opportunity For Growth. This is what Brenda Reynolds shares in her talk on navigating the transition fog. Loved her approach and loved the talk. I have taken note of this in my journal and remind myself of this every now & then :).
Speaking of transitions on the personal front, I have a lot to share there too. In fact, I always find transitions in my personal life to be more challenging than professional ones. If personal ones are not managed well, it impacts the professional path as well. But wondering, where and how to share that part of my journey. Considering the audience profile of my Medium & Substack newsletter, definitely not here :). Maybe time to revive my decades-old personal blog now. If you would be interested to know more about it, especially how to prepare your child for the big move, then drop me a note here.
A request
I am taking the liberty to ask you a couple of more questions in this link. It will help me plan for my content calendar for next year. There is anyways overload of content in our lives these days. For 2023, I want to write only if & when I think it’s worth sharing or of value to you.
On that note, let me wrap up this post here. More meaningful content to come to your inbox soon.
Happy December. May the last month of the year be the best one for you.
*Before I sign off — can I please pitch in my newsletter to you? I have to do it, considering I am trying to revive my posts :). The only promise — it will reach your inbox only when I think it would be of value to you. And if it won’t be, please unsubscribe. It’s a content jungle out there, we definitely don’t need more newsletters in our inboxes.
