What Are Life Transitions?

Change vs. Transition:
The Outer and Inner Dimensions of Transformation

Most people think of “change” and “transition” as the same thing.
But they’re not.

Change happens in your outer world — it’s situational.
You change jobs, move cities, end a relationship, become a parent, retire, or face a health crisis.
Change is what happens to you.

Transition, however, happens in your inner world.
It’s the psychological, emotional, and spiritual process of letting go of what was, moving through uncertainty, and emerging into a new identity and way of being.
Transition is what happens within you.

The late William Bridges, one of the pioneering thinkers in this field, made a vital distinction between change and transition.
He described transition as the “inner reorientation” that must take place for change to truly take root.

According to Bridges, every transition unfolds through three essential phases:

1. An Ending – letting go of the old identity, role, or reality.
2. The Neutral Zone – the in-between state of uncertainty, confusion, and possibility.
3. A New Beginning – the emergence of a new identity and sense of purpose.

These phases describe the structure of how humans psychologically process major change.

But while Bridges mapped the territory of transition, he didn’t deeply explore and map in detail how to consciously facilitate this transformational process of inner evolution.

That’s where my work begins.

Taking It Deeper: Generative Inner Work

My approach — Generative Inner Work Coaching — builds upon and extends Bridges’ foundational ideas.

Where Bridges helped us understand transitions, Generative Inner Work helps you work with them consciously and creatively.

It’s about learning how to:

• Engage the transition process as a generative opportunity, not merely a problem to solve.
• Develop the self-awareness and meta-cognition needed to navigate liminal space — that uncertain “in-between” phase — with presence and grace.
• Allow your identity, values, and consciousness to evolve through the process of change.
• Integrate new meaning and purpose, rather than returning to old patterns in new circumstances.

In short, Generative Inner Work Coaching helps you evolve through change rather than simply move through it.

Life Transitions: The Thresholds of Becoming

Life transitions occur whenever your current way of living, working, or making sense of the world no longer fits who you are becoming.

They can be triggered by external events or by inner realisations.

Some are obvious and visible. Others are subtle and internal.

Here are some of the most common examples:

Why These Times Feel So Unsettling

Every transition involves the death of an old identity and the birth of a new one.
That’s why it feels so confusing, even painful.

When you’re in between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming, your old sense of self dissolves before the new one has fully emerged.
This is what makes transitions feel like being in limbo — you can’t go back, but you don’t yet know how to go forward.

Bridges called this the Neutral Zone; in generative work, we call it the Liminal Space — the fertile void where transformation actually takes place.

The challenge is that most people try to rush through this space.
They want to feel certain, fix things, or recreate a sense of control.
But that impulse often prevents real growth.

The work of a Generative Inner Work Coach is to help you:

• Stay present and conscious within this space,
• Understand what’s trying to evolve and emerge within you, and
• Learn how to participate in your own unfolding.

Generative Life Transitions: Turning Change into Evolution

In my coaching practice, I guide people through life transitions as rites of passage — moments that invite the evolution of consciousness itself.

This means learning how to:

• Recognise the deeper learning intelligence operating within your experiences.
• Let go of previous identities, beliefs, and assumptions that no longer serve your growth.
• Access states of meta-awareness to work generatively with your emotions and patterns.
• Cultivate authenticity of being and integrity of action as your new self emerges.

Each transition becomes a generative process — an experiential, living laboratory for developing wisdom, maturity, and depth of presence.

Rather than simply moving from one circumstance to another, you become more whole, more awake, and more aligned with your true way of being.