Transitions

Making Sense of Life's Changes

By: William Bridges, Susan Bridges

Narrated by: George Psomas

Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The best-selling guide for coping with changes in life and work, named one of the 50 all-time best books in self-help and personal development

Whether you choose it or it is thrust upon you, change brings both opportunities and turmoil. Since Transitions was first published, this supportive guide has helped hundreds of thousands cope with these issues by providing an elegantly simple yet profoundly insightful road map of the transition process. With the understanding born of both personal and professional experience, William Bridges takes listeners step by step through the three stages of any transition: The Ending, The Neutral Zone, and, eventually, The New Beginning. Bridges explains how each stage can be understood and embraced, leading to meaningful and productive movement into a hopeful future. With a new introduction highlighting how the advice in the audiobook continues to apply and is perhaps even more relevant today, and a new chapter devoted to change in the workplace, Transitions will remain the essential guide for coping with the one constant in life: change.

©2004 William Bridges, Susan Bridges (P)2019 Da Capo Lifelong Books

Critic reviews

"Provid[es] an elegantly simple yet profoundly insightful roadmap of the transition process." (Cleveland Sun Messenger)

"Excellent." (Racine Journal Times)

Enlightening

Beautiful book about a classical human life topic rarely articulated. I enjoyed every minute of it.

It's a classic for a reason

This is a phenomenal book. To say it was helpful for me is a huge understatement. Bridges' definition of the stages of transition was eye-opening and helped me to make sense of the multiple transitions I've been going through over the past few years and to have more patience with the unfolding. Bridges helped me to understand that this place that has felt like a painful and unproductive plateau in my life--what he calls the Neutral Zone--is an essential part of the growth process necessary to move forward into something new. He makes an important distinction between change--which is external and doesn't spark any internal growth or evolution in the individual--and transition, which leaves us transformed. That transformation takes time, and learning that this process is universal and essential helped me to have more compassion for myself and more patience with the process.

I should point out that I didn't find the beginning of the book--about transition stages in relationships and the work life-- helpful to me where I am in my life right now. I was on the verge of abandoning the book entirely, but it had been recommended by someone I respect, so I decided instead to skip ahead to Part II, The Transition Process Itself. This section is absolute GOLD. As far as I'm concerned, the two sections could have--and maybe should have-- been separate books, since their focus is so different. I loved learning about the stages of transition and all of the nuances of the Neutral Zone, and Bridges' use of the Oedipus and Odyssey myths to illuminate aspects of the journey was helpful and enjoyable to me.

My only complaint is that the narration was a bit annoying--not enough to outweigh how great and powerful the book is, but enough to irritate me. The narrator reminded me of mediocre actors who overact everything. His assumption of a higher pitch in his voice whenever reading quotations by women in Bridges' workshop was at best silly and at times, borderline offensive. He clearly didn't have a feel for the book, and at times it seemed like he hadn't even read it before narrating it. But I forged ahead nonetheless because the wisdom of this book was too good to miss out on, and since Bridges is dead, we can't very well expect him to narrate it himself.

I intend to buy the print version of this book so that I can reread and highlight certain sections and make annotations for my own use.

If you are in transition in your life, whether from a job change, the death of someone close to you, a divorce, children leaving the nest, or any number of other transitions that people experience in a lifetime, and you are bewildered, stressed, or feeling wrung out by the process, download this book right away.

Everything I needed in my life right now!!!

I’m a life coach and in the recent year I experienced extreme grief. My supervising coach recommended this book and it has helped me tremendously!!! I now use the knowledge in my coaching and it has improved tremendously

Life changing

This book has been an enormous help for me. The stories, from mythology, do a fantastic job of explaining the points brought up in the book.

Wise and Timeless

An older mentor type friend told me about this book and how much it helped him with a work related transition some thirty years back. I was not disappointed and the three phases of transition rang true. In some places the discussion seemed a bit dated and overwrought but nevertheless timeless and universal. I didn’t think the additional update material by the author’s widow very helpful. Felt like she was adding her name to the byline on the new edition by putting in some extra padding that actually detracted from her husband’s work.

Great book

Best book on transitions I’ve ever found. I see now why it’s a classic and still around decades later. The content is relevant throughout all of life.

A book for everyone

Transitions are part of being human. William Bridges breaks it down in such a simple but clear way to make it easy for any reader to digest. A great companion for anyone feeling stuck or looking to end or start anew.

A wonderful compendium on Transitions

“Transitions” is a well-written and thoughtful book about a subject that is quite difficult for some people to accept. The reason for the difficulty is that we as humans can become more than comfortable in our surroundings that when we are compelled to make a (usually and unexpected) change, we can be upset. Yet, this book can truly assist people who are making a change in their lives. I highly recommend reading and perhaps after a period of time re reading this very well written and informative book. I think that it can be especially helpful in these difficult and turbulent times in our lives.

A Hepful read.

I found this book to be insightful. It helped in trying to understand the space between. I never thought about transition having a middle.

Timeless

There is a lot of wisdom here .. although perhaps a little more anecdote than empirical then I would have expected.

I kept trying to compare this book to two other well, established books in this genre:

.. Bob Buford, halftime
.. Bolles, what color is your parachute?

Both of these books seem to have more structure in their process than William Hughes’ book here.

I found the section on the five “dis” (disenchantment, disorientation, etc.) to be very honest treatment of things. life isn’t always a bowl of cherries. That being said, there wasn’t enough positive reinforcement in the book from my perspective. I think the confident mind by Nate Zinser may perhaps be a nice compliment to transitions.

Overall a very good book.