Over the past few weeks, we’ve been helping you think about whether you’re currently using the skills you love, are in the right working environment, and are living in alignment with your life priorities.
 
In our post, Is it time to leave?, we helped you assess your current job, and in Leaving Gracefully, we reviewed some ways you can respond to the emotions of others once you give your notice.
 
Today, we’re talking about the transition to a new job and the inevitable emotions that can come with it. It’s important to take care of yourself, take some time in between jobs if possible, and grieve the ending of one job so that you can celebrate the beginning of another.
 
There are several things you can do to remain connected to yourself so that you’re ready to give your best to your new job.

REFLECT

This may sound silly, but reflecting on your time at your old job, can help you get clarity on how you’ll show up at your new job. Think about answering some of these questions:

  • When you were at your best, what skills were you using and what were the circumstances?
  • When you were challenged, what was the work and what were the circumstances?
  • What type of leader, employee, colleague do you want to show up as?
  • What changes in your behavior will you make in order to show up as the leader, employee, and colleague you want to be? 

CONNECT

Connection is important to our well-being. Whether it’s connection to people, places, or things, think about the connections you’ll miss.

  • If there are people you’ll miss, think about sending them a note, or finding a way to connect in-person/virtually after you leave. 
  • If you find yourself missing parts of the environment or work, think about what’s possible to bring some of that to the new place. 

REMAIN AGILE

If you’re feeling sad after you leave, that’s okay. Grief isn’t just how we integrate death – it’s also a way we can navigate new truths or realities that have changed our worlds, or even a future we had imagined.

Try to remain emotionally agile during this transition time by not labeling your emotions as positive or negative. It’s okay to be both sad to end one job and happy to be starting a new one.

  • Name your grief and allow yourself to have your emotions. Often, doing the work in the above two sections can help you with this.
  • At the same time, you can also name your excitement about starting your new job. As humans, we have the capacity to hold multiple emotions at the same time.

If you’ve recently started a new job and find yourself in an unsettling transition state, try some of the recommendations above and let us know how it goes.