Life and ministry transitions can be really tricky to navigate. Hello, everyone and welcome to Navigate. I'm Tim Austin and this is the podcast designed to take the guesswork out of transition. Whether you have a transition looming in your future, or you're trying to make sense out of a past or current transition, this shows
for you. In each episode, we'll introduce strategies and tools that individuals and teams can use to effectively navigate seasons of change, and navigate, it's all about leveraging the challenges of change for optimal growth. Now, I do want to say something about the length of episodes on this podcast, what can you expect? First, when we have a guest on the show, you can expect the episodes to be around 30 minutes or so give or take a few minutes.
When I do a solo episode, expect a bit more of a bullet point format. I will introduce the topic share a story or example from life as a jumping off point and dive into a discussion around that theme. And we'll always capture something as a takeaway so that you can use that to navigate a winning transition. And the solo episodes will be a bit shorter, probably 15 to 20 minutes each. So that gives you an idea of what to expect in terms of the
length of episode. So let's introduce our topic today, which can be a real sticky point in transition seasons. The world we live in serves up a daily diet of blame and accusation. One side blames the other and vice versa. Nobody wants to own the problem and take responsibility. As I speak, the federal government is blaming California and California is blaming the
federal government. There's nothing new under the sun, blame and not taking ownership is an age old problem going back to the fall of man, it seems like no place is safe from blame politics, communities, families, the workplace, and even our places of worship. Then there's the issue of blaming ourselves. And that's going to be the focus of our episode today. Self blame is an obstacle in the path to growth. And this is definitely true in difficult and pro long
transition seasons. In all of this ownership is the missing ingredient. As I've walked through some of my own challenging transitions and helped coach others through theirs, I've discovered how important it is to own the transition we find ourselves in if we really want to grow. If we really want to leverage the change we're in toward maximum growth, then we must take
ownership. Today I want to share with you three ways that we can take ownership and grow rather than get caught in the blame cycle and miss out on the opportunities for growth. I want to start with a story about a personal transition that I went through. A few years ago, I decided to take on a teaching and mentoring role at a private university in the US between overseas assignments. It turned out that the institution was on the brink
of closure. morale was at an all time low and I was the newbie coming into what I would soon discover to be the countdown for closing the doors of the college. Now the initial decision to take on this role catapulted us as a family into a huge transition, one that seemed to have more negative impact at the time than positive. And what's more, it just kept getting worse or so it seemed I began blaming myself that this decision to lead my family in this direction was a major
blunder on my part. And now we were all paying for it. I find I found myself with tons of negative self talk and a very critical attitude. Some days I was blaming the difficult transition on myself. Other days I was angry at others and blaming them. poor decisions were to blame. American culture was the culprit, you name it, I blamed it I was fully engaged in the blame cycle. I soon discovered that blaming a negative self talk only made
things worse. And I can I get a witness whether we blame ourselves or others for our difficult or and prolong transitions. Either way, we're not taking responsibility not owning our transition. And when that happens, we get stuck. Have you found yourself in a transition that seems to be spinning out of control? Like me in the transition story that I shared? Are you feeling stuck in a cycle of anger, confusion, blame? What could it look like to approach your transition
differently? to reframe it with new eyes and fresh perspective? Let's make a fresh start today. With this thought, the soil of difficult transition is often fertile ground for growth and development. Now, let's personalize that the soil of difficult transition is fertile ground for my growth and development. Think about that statement. Do you believe it? Do you own it? I want to share with you three ways to defeat the cycle of blame and maximize your growth potential through hard
transitions. Here they are, number one go for a long term perspective. Now from my faith orientation, long term reaches into eternity. What if this season is preparation ground for the next is what you're experiencing somehow tied to a yet unseen, bigger picture. Pro long transitions can be really hard, but they are never without purpose. Even when our poor choices have added to the confusion. Focusing long term can help us gain clarity and break free from hopeless thoughts and attitudes.
Here's some things you can do to cultivate a long term perspective. And these have worked for me in the past dream. envision an ideal future that can anchor you and hope and keep you encouraged, do some dreaming. Sit down with your spouse and do some dreaming, sit down with your team, your colleagues and do some dreaming. It's a way to get the big picture to picture something bigger than yourself. When in transition seasons, it's so easy to get tunnel vision.
And this helps us break out of that and gives us hope for the future. set some long term goals and find a structure for holding yourself accountable to those goals. And take small steps each day toward those goals. And also, we can focus our efforts on personal development, inward growth and character formation. And this will serve us well in the next place, wherever that may be in whatever role we move into. So go for that long term
perspective. Secondly, spend some time clarifying your personal values, beliefs and priorities. Remember, transition is not setting the agenda you are. So even with a forced transition, I'm still setting the agenda in terms of my own thoughts, attitudes and responses. Our personal values remind us of what really matters, faith, family, friendships, the ways that we rest and recharge and
renew. All these things can serve as anchors to help us help ground ourselves and bring joy in the moment when we're tempted to focus only on the complexities of the transition, and really forget what really matters. So spend some time clarifying your personal values, beliefs and priorities. Answer the question what really matters most to me in this transition, and why? Thirdly, process process process. Seek out someone who has walked ahead of you through transition seasons and can be a sounding
board. Get a coach, get a counselor to process your hard transition with tell your story. You know, worries and concerns which are brought into the light have much less chance of dragging us into the dark side of blame and confusion. Chances are we're not the only ones trying to navigate a confusing transition. And when I finally began to understand this fact, I started approaching my relationships differently. Rather than avoiding people in conversations, I started
pursuing them. And you can do the same by turning your transition into a series of growth enabling conversations. life giving conversations. It's Time to break out of the blame cycle and leverage transition for optimal discovery and growth. So let's review these three ways we can own our transition. Three ways we can defeat the cycle of blame and maximize the growth potential through hard transitions. Number one, go for that long term perspective.
Number two, spend some time clarifying your personal values, beliefs and priorities. And number three, process process process. Break out of the blame cycle, leverage that transition Own your transition for optimal discovery and growth. Based on those three focus areas, what is one thing you will do to own your transition this week?
As a coach, I'm passionate about helping you own the transition you're in and move forward with greater clarity and you can move forward you can be free from accusation free from blame as you navigate this season of transition, book a discovery call with me and encompass life coaching.com if you're interested to learn how working with a coach can help you grow during this time of transition. Thanks, everyone for joining me for this episode of navigate podcast. I've been your host,
Tim Austin. If this has been helpful to you, would you mind rating the podcast writing a review and sharing on social media? And of course you can subscribe so that you're sure to get in on the next episode. I'll see you there.