Practice guide · Public · 10 min
Working through a transition
A walk through a change that has already started moving: a new role, a move, a diagnosis, an ending. Five sittings, or one.
A transition is a context that has already started moving. A new role, a move, a diagnosis, a child leaving home, a business closing, a relationship changing shape. You did not have to choose it for it to be yours to work with. This guide walks through it in five sittings. Take them in one evening or over a month.
1. Name what is ending and what is starting
Transitions blur because the ending and the beginning overlap. Write both down, and write down what stays the same. Some of what stays is what you will lean on.
| What is ending | What is starting | What stays the same |
|---|---|---|
2. Find where you stand
Orientation: locating yourself within the context. You do not need the whole picture. Sort what you have into what you know, what you are guessing, and what you cannot know yet. The third column is allowed to be long.
| What I know | What I am guessing | What I cannot know yet |
|---|---|---|
3. Read it three ways
The three readings of one context: Flow, Tribe, and Prosper. The same transition looks different through each. One reading will carry most of the weight right now. That is expected, and it will shift. The reading carrying the weight does not make the others disappear.
| Reading | Right now | What it asks of me |
|---|---|---|
| What is moving, stuck, or recurring | ||
| Who is with me, and who is affected | ||
| What this could become, and what would be enough |
4. Choose one fitting move
Movement in a transition is often small. Ask one person one question. Wait for a result before deciding. Protect a routine that still works. Rest. Accept what has already happened. Doing more is not the default.
- One move:
- What I am deliberately not doing yet:
- When I will come back to this:
5. Come back to it
What returns is new context. The mornings improved and sleep got worse. The new role fits and the commute does not. Neither is a verdict on the transition. Add what came back to the table in step 2, notice what moved between the columns, and choose the next move from there.
A transition can also close, pause, or split into two contexts. Ending the sheet is a legitimate move.
When there is credible risk. If the transition involves your safety, your health, or someone else's, protective movement comes first, and the honest move is toward qualified help. This guide is orientation. It is not care.
In the PLAIT Context System a transition is a PLAIT with its notes, tasks, and a return habit kept together, so what came back sits beside what you wrote before. The download carries this guide as app-aligned entries.
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