Ever wondered what hope, faith and courage have to do with Transitions? As I see it we need to employ all three of these principles to make it through a challenging transition successfully. We have to hope that things will get better, have faith that we will make it through a tough or unsettling time and courage to have the where-with-all to walk through a dark passageway into the light. This has been the case with many of the life transitions I’ve weathered. In my most recent one, I changed my job and moved at the same time. Talk about stress! What was I thinking? I had to have hope that making these moves would improve the quality of my life. I had to believe that thrusting myself into new situations would be for the best. I had to have the courage to apply for a new job, go on interviews, give notice at my old firm, while at the same time finding a new house, securing a loan, packing and moving, in order to take the leap of faith necessary to do something different and push myself beyond my comfort zone.
I see this same pattern in the transitions friends, family and clients have made. Friends of mine who lost their beloved dog a month ago went out and found a new canine companion to fill the hole in their hearts. They had to have hope, faith and courage to make this happen. Another ended a relationship with a boyfriend, realizing that it was not serving her. She was hoping that she was making the right decision, had the faith necessary to take this step and the courage to actually set off on her own again. Others decided to move to a new area because the cost of living was too high in the Bay Area. They, too, had to employ hope, faith and courage to try a new place and leave the familiar behind.
As I look back on the past 15 years, I can identify several times when we have done the same thing. When we moved to Santa Rosa at the end of 2016, we were in a financial crisis and found a way to get a reverse mortgage so we didn’t have to pay for a mortgage. We found new jobs and made new friends over the course of the two and a half years we lived there. For many reasons, it wasn’t the right move for us, and we came back to Marin County even though we didn’t think that would be possible. And even though things didn’t work out for us there, we employed hope, faith and courage to make the move there and the subsequent one home. In 2006 we moved from California to Colorado for similar reasons and found it not to be our place either. So in 2009 we came back to Marin for the first time. Each time we were told, “if you leave Marin, you won’t be able to come back.” And each time we found a way to make the move back happen. Hope, Faith and Courage. Again and again, in times of great changes, we’ve employed these three principles and have seen how powerfully they work in our lives. How have you used hope, faith in courage in your life transitions? Please let us know by commenting below to share how these principles have worked for you.