Escape from No-Man’s-Land
Transition is the no-man’s-land of “in between” where old hangs on while new is not yet. But, nothing really works.
Temptation:
The temptation of transition is going back. The pain that drove you to change in the first place doesn’t seem so bad, anymore. At the same time, painful uncertainties about the future rise like dragons from the mist.
New dream:
New dreams are conceived in a present that isn’t working. Products are outdated. Systems fail. The world changed but you didn’t. Or, you changed but your world didn’t.
Dreams are lights, emerging. They’re invitations without substance. They glide in our thoughts and fly on our feelings.
Dreams inspire us to pursue something new. They create transition moments. People and organizations that successfully navigate transitions – and life is filled with them – thrive. The inability to transition is like living in a dream where you’re running but can’t get away.
Stuck:
You feel stuck because new dreams crawl before they run but in the old world you already ran.
New competencies:
Current competencies are about the past but dreams are about the future. Dreams require new, unproven competencies.
- Remember the pain.
- Trust your passion to serve in new ways.
- Experiment. Say, “What about?”
- Live with uncertainty, for the moment.
- Consider mistakes and setbacks as new starting points.
- Talk with those who have navigated transitions.
- Reflect on your future.
- Read.
- Rest.
Loved your suggestion to talk with people who had successfully done what I want to do. Good idea… and thanks for the nudge.
Best to you as you “nudge” forward. Nudging may be underrated. 🙂
Dear Dan,
I like the statement” Dreams are invitation without substance. For me, it has great significance. If we add substance to our dreams, we start living our dreams. In the sense, we have to accept invitation of dreams. And we must add substance through our determination, passion and efforts. This makes our dream materialized.Sometimes I do think that world of dreams is real one and our present world is imaginary. Real world has its limitation but world of dreams has no limitation. We have to control our present world but we do not have control on world of dreams. So, it seems more logical that world of dreams is more powerful and real.
I believe individual and organizations can navigate the no-man’s-land of transition by creating belief. I agree with you that we need to see the future and not to dwell in the past. Leadership is about uncertainty. Managers know the result of their actions whereas leaders are hopeful even in the uncertain situations.That is the reason, whey leaders are class.
Dear Ajay,
Thanks for adding your insights and impressions concerning the “world of dreams”
I love dreams so much that I was reluctant to make a categorical statement… they don’t have substance. it’s obvious they don’t but I hate saying anything that minimizes the importance of dreams.
You bring the importance of “materializing” dreams… thanks for adding that important focus.
Thanks for regularly sharing your thoughts.
Best,
Dan
Some really great points there. Love the way you’ve positioned that. 🙂
Thank you sir!
Thanks so much. Such timely encouragement for me just now. My boss, who I moved across the country to work with, just accepted a position in another state! Yikes. I want to be excited for him but am stymied by high anxiety for the transitions ahead!
Thanks for joining in and sharing a bit of your story. You make me feel the anxiety that transitions cause…. It’s that anxiety that keeps us stuck.
Some great foood for thought Dan. One sentence stuck out for me – “New dreams are conceived in a present that isn’t working.” While very true in most circumstances, I suggest that great leaders conceive new dreams before the present stops working, always keeping ahead of the game. Think about it, in my lifetime – man on the moon to space station to Hubble and now private companies in space; party line telephones to private lines to cell phones to iphones that are better than the early computers. The list goes on and on. One question I’m always contemplating is how to get the majority “dreaming” and seeing that change can really be a good thing. Not everyone will be a leader, but everyone can and should be a dreamer!!
Hi Don,
Thanks for the good word and for extending the conversation…
Great addition… why wait for things to get bad… just pursue innovation. Right on!
I wonder if acknowledging and addressing fears might be helpful for others to see the dream. I’m thinking fear is the culprit that holds us back. I wonder if celebrating exploration and failure is something that can become part of an organizations culture.
Best,
Dan
Transitions are often destabilizing… High School to College; College to Employment; single to married; crutches to walking… Man’s design has a strong hope muscle that can energize us forward against very heavy odds. It’s when the uncertainty lingers for long seasons, resources run dry and we lose heart that we enter the danger zone. We stop looking for a job; we give up on a wayward family member,we lose sight of the dream. The environment gives us plenty of reasons to give up -but if we search we can also find hope-tokens; the bird-strike USAir flight safely landing on the Hudson, the rescue of Chilean miners after months… Finding sources to feed our inner man are essential – and even prior to that recognizing our inner man’s needs. For me, even in my industrial contexts, I call strongly and dependently on the Lord, it resets me to a larger context and allows some refreshment when I come up dry.
Thanks for getting my thoughts going, now back to work…:)
Hi Ken,
You honor us with part of your own story and bring up the power of hope… great stuff.
I couldn’t agree more in the power of hope. Ask a hopeless person to launch out and try something new and you get resistance… on the other hand, people with hope, dare!
Best,
Dan
Insightful, nothing new, but a nice rethink of the whitewater of change, nothing new there either. Applies to me (personal change) as well as organizational (functional) and individaul project work. Thanks Dan
Hi Jack,
Nothing new, most days I don’t shoot for new just my perspective on some leadership principle that’s on my mind… that’s where the rethink comes in… 🙂
Cheers,
Dan
in the IT world, change is opportunity.
Hi Bill,
I think we can all apply your lesson.
Best,
dan
Read “Necessary Endings,” by Dr. Henry Cloud for inspiration and motivation.
I haven’t read Cloud’s book yet but I hear it’s good… I’ll have to add it to my long list.
It’s a LOT like the post you just wrote! 🙂
cool! Necessary Endings sounds a lot like the lesson I keep learning: Letting go is the thing that lets us move forward.
I linked to this post on my blog. Thank you for writing it.
Your view of stuck is a lightbulb moment for me!
Always a pleasure to be useful. 🙂
I love how this post is written so that it doesn’t just have to apply to work, but life as well! Good job!
Glad you see broader application… Leadership is about life.
I’m learning that more and more every day. I have to lead myself before I can lead others 🙂
Your palette of word painting is so expansive Dan, thanks again. You shine a light through that foggy image of no-man’s-land which, for those who embrace change, may actually be everyman’s-land.
The challenge is embracing the unknown or in the midst of the unknown. Ensuring that the energy does not spiral down into anxiety, rather it spirals up in anticipation. The former is easier, the later is more fun.
For me, your most illuminating stroke was the past/present conflict. Having partially removed yourself from the past’s full pain, and now, perhaps inaccurately perceiving you are stuck in a more uncomfortable place, you begin to yearn for the good old days. At least it was a known pain that you had had to work around.
While your impression, when in the netherworld, is that nothing really works may not be accurate. It is just that it doesn’t work like it used to.
So you have the option of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results (we know that definition).
Or give yourself permission (and that is powerful and freeing) to ‘pilot’ new courses, knowing that many of the new course may not bear fruit–still you can learn from them.
Isn’t piloting or trialing new approaches wasteful and expensive? Not near as expensive as doing the same thing and not getting results or getting diminishing results. As long as you drill down with the new steps to identify ROI, you are on the right path. Setting an expectation of ‘trial and learn’ and truly walking that expectation can be so exhilarating, you are actually excited to go to work.
Doc,
KaCHING! … nuff said.
Always a pleasure!
Dan
Ditto Doc, well said. 🙂
Dear Dan,
Loved the post and the ideas as shared. The transition phase with optimism is very crucial which compels one to learn and venture into promising areas of realising dreams. New competencies can certainly be acquired once focused and moving towards the future goals.
Organizations progress keeping business intelligence and competitiveness as prime tools for reaching the mission and moving closer to the set vision.
Individuals can chase their dreams by remaining successful in present and create a winning image to get picked up for higher responsibilities with a position-linked monetary benefits and perks.
Moving fast in future without loosing the sight of dreams coupled with new vigor and required skills should be the aim of all ambitious people.
Dear Dr. Asher,
One word in your comment totally grabbed my attention… “optimism” Boy! that makes all the difference.
Also, you help us remember to remain successful in the present… don’t through the baby out with the bath water.
Thank you for regularly sharing your insights.
Best,
Dan
This post really speaks to me today, Dan. And the perfect follow up to the last blog post I wrote a few weeks back. 🙂
Being in the midst of transition myself, there is so much I can relate to and share from your post. Certainly not the first transition I’ve been through, yet it has been one that is marked with the most uncertainty.
As a bookworm, I usually devour books quickly. One that I have been finding to be a friendly companion, yet taking my time with has been David Whyte’s, ‘The Heart Aroused: Poetry and Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America’. It’s one of those rare gems where I found myself nodding my head with a ‘yes’ following each page. Each chapter.
Periods of transition can mean different things depending on the nature. For me, it has felt more like the ‘dark night of the soul’ as referred to by some. Others may refer to it as the ‘void’. David characterized it as the point at which we come face to face with ‘the black, contemplative splendors of self-doubt’. (fr. Ch 1: The Path Begins)
It has been most challenging for me in that I have given up so much of the roles and identities that I derived much of my self-worth from. So it’s like being metaphorically naked, in a sense, but without the usual ‘supports’ we tend to lean on in life.
While paving the way to nurture a new dream/vision at the same time. Both a challenging, and meaningful journey all at the same time.
Right now, I can say that transition is definitely a period of chaos before new creation. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this today, Dan.
Hi Samantha,
I read your passion in your comment. I’m sure that sharing your story will help other LF readers.
I’m thankful you brought out the idea of chaos before creation and the loss of identity that is based in past performance. Both chaos and loss of identity are powerful motivators for us to stay stuck in the past…
You have my best,
Dan
Beautiful! Dreams are our catalyst for imagining a different world, a different us, a way to create a different reality. Hope is a huge part. Fear is a natural companion that we must acknowledge, but not allow to stay. I’ve had to “dream” a lot in the past 10 years, as the world created a far different reality than what I grew up with. But, angsting over what isn’t doesn’t work for me. It wastes my energy. I have found it far more energizing to ask questions like, “Is there another right answer; what is here that I can learn and take with me; who is here that encourages and I can take them with me?”
And then I engage in conversation with God and listen for another right answer.
Best…Jim
Hi Jim,
Love “angsting over what isn’t” wow! We can sure spend a lot of time in angst-land.
I find your questions helpful… “Is there another right answer” is open and forward facing.
Thanks for adding value to our conversation.
Best,
Dan
That was beautifully put. It’s like you collect wisdom like you’re going on a trip. You take what works so your pack is full of good things. What a brilliant way to see things!!! Thank you so much!
What stuck out to me was “Dreams inspire us to pursue something new.” Inspires me to keep dreaming and keep looking to do something new.
Hi Robyn,
Here’s to creating new futures! Cheers.
Best,
Dan
Very powerful writings. I’ve read only three, and each one has hit me hard. Right now I’m in the transition of no man’s land. Thank you for reminding me of that dream that I need to continue to pursue.
Hi Sol,
It’s always great to hear a word of encouragement. Thank you.
Best wishes as you pursue your dream.
Dan
Hi Dan, touched a “nerve” with me with this post. Dreams and Transition two ideas that often date but never marry. We all want to live our dreams. It is just not always possible at the time we want it. Some of us dream we “could” go back and actually in our dreams we can knowing reality will set in the moment we wake. But still there can be joy in it. Think about how we keep alive the memories of our departed loved ones. We reminisce about shared moments and enjoy forgotten glimpses that bring a smile of happiness. We dream awake all the time, do we not? I know I do. Every time we fantasize, we envision, we forecast, we hope for, we wish,are we not day dreaming? Creativity has a nest in our daydreams and fantasy resides in our night dreams where everything and anything is possible. Transition holds the hands of creativity and fantasy and discoveries are made. Attitude and patience will color transitions and perseverance will help you get through. Everything in life both physically and spiritually is one transition after another. How we journey is up to us.
Hi Al,
Incredible insights. I also, sense the deeply personal nature of your comments. Very powerful.
You’ve gently reminded me of the the personal responsibility inherent in transition times.
I also get the feel that I should do more daydreaming.. 🙂
Always a pleasure,
Dan
Great piece — I especially enjoyed your commentary on the conception of dreams. It reminds me of the late-90s Apple “Think Different” campaign, namely the “Crazy Ones” ad narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, which ends with powerful commentary. “The people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Hi! I loved this painting and I’d like to use it in my phd thesis, could any of you tell me where the foggy-dream comes from? Thanks