Our overall responses to change include actively resisting change, trying to do nothing, shifting, transitioning, and transforming. Notice how these range from resisting change to really adapting to change, and then adopting that change. In the midst of this, we may “plateau” - reach a steady state, a time to catch our breath. We may also end one life before beginning another, and in between we may experience a “wilderness.”

The terms below are my own definitions but some people do not differentiate between a change (something that occurs to us) and a transition or transformation (something that occurs within us). Regardless of how you view these words, imagine you are walking, and imagine what happens to your path and direction in each of the following shapes of change.

You will notice that terms in the preceding section may be thought of as “shapes of change.” An inflection point or defining moment, suggests that we were on a path, had a major change, and then adjusted our course accordingly. It is this process that makes discussing change so complex. It is helpful to think of life as a journey and we are on a path. What we discuss here relates to that journey and that path.

Resisting
Most of us resist change, whether the change is for the better or worse. For whatever reason, many of us find change frightening.

Doing Nothing
In reality, this is not an option. If our environment changes, we are forced to accommodate, because we do not live in a vacuum. The alternative - to maintain a steady state - would require us to change to maintain the illusion of non-change.

Shifting
Shifting can be thought of as a little change in direction. We were going this way and now we are going in a little different direction - maybe twenty degrees difference.

Shift (shift) v. 1. To move or transfer from one place or position to another. n. 2. A change of direction or form.

Transitioning
Transitioning can be thought of as turning a corner, or making a major internal shift to accommodate the change that is impacting us.

Transition (tran-zish’en, -sish’en) n. 1. The process or an instance of changing from one form, state, activity, or place to another.

Transforming
I tend to think of transformation as going beyond transition - really “transforming” from one state to another, or changing form.
Transform (trans-form’) v. –formed, -forming, -forms. –tr. 1. To change markedly the form or appearance of. 2. To change the nature, function, or condition of; to convert.

Transformation (trans’fer-ma-shen) n. 1.a. The act of transforming. b. The state or an instance of being transformed. c. Something that has been transformed.

When I think of transformation, I think of a butterfly evolving from a caterpillar. Metamorphosis is growth; mutating is survival.

Plateauing
We have seen that we all have change, off and on, during our lifetimes. My own internal shifts were often created through learning and growing. In fact, it sometimes seems as if I go through a growth spurt, then a plateau, followed by then another growth spurt. My observation of faltering partnerships (either business or personal) is that one partner is growing and the other cannot keep up, or that they are growing and plateauing in ways that are not totally coordinated. One partner may seek higher goals, while the other is satisfied with the status quo.

That plateau may be a “wilderness,” as described below, or it may merely be a time for us to catch our breaths, to create the external life that coordinates with our new internal reality, or to create a new internal reality that coordinates with our external changes.

Endings, The Wilderness, Beginnings
Some people say that we have to have endings before we have beginnings. Further, between the ending of one way of life and the beginning of another way of life, we are in the wilderness, that place where we feel at odds with our world or that place where we feel confusion without direction. Some people feel so uprooted while they are in the wilderness that they try to turn back and recreate the reality they once had. The notion of endings, the wilderness, and beginnings helps me in remembering that:

I am not alone in the process of transition: change and transition seem to be the human condition, as well as conditions of nature.

If I feel directionless, I can understand it by thinking of the wilderness.

Endings often precede beginnings.

Without endings, we cannot have beginnings.