First published in 1980, Transitions was the first book to explore the underlying and universal pattern of transition.
Recently named one of the fifty most important self-help books of all time, Transitions remains the essential guide
for coping with the inevitable changes in life. Transitions takes readers step-by-step through the three perilous
stages of any transition, explaining how each stage can be understood and embraced. Offering an elegantly simple
yet profoundly insightful roadmap for successfully navigating change and moving into a hopeful future, the process
is ever relevant and applicable today. Endings. Every transition begins with one. Too often we misunderstand them,
confuse them with finality -- that's it, all over, finished!
Yet how we recognize endings is key to how we can begin anew. The Neutral Zone. The second hurdle of transition:
a seemingly unproductive time-out when we feel disconnected from people and things in the past and emotionally
unconnected to the present. Yet the neutral zone is really a time of reorientation. How can we make the most of
it? The New Beginning. In transitions we come to beginnings only at the end, when we launch new activities. To
make a successful new beginning requires more than simply persevering. It requires an understanding of external
signs and inner signals that point the way to the future.
Table of Contents
Part I The Need for Change
1. Being In Transition
2. A Lifetime of Transitions
3. Relationships and Transition
4. Transitions in the Work Life
Part II The Transition Process Itself
5. Endings
6. The Neutral Zone
7. You Finish with a New Beginning