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Transition vs Change Analysis Essay
As the saying goes, “Change is inevitable in one’s life”. There are many instances that life has only made meaning after a critical decision has been made. While change can be positive or negative, scholars argue that every person has a had a turning point that has defined the meaning of life (BOMAN IV & Mowen, 2018). Some defining moments/ events can come by chance while others can be planned. All in all, such moments are worth recalling as they often define the path of life. This task seeks to reflect on an event that was a turning point in my life within the realm of Bridge’s notions of transitions. Additionally, the essay will reflect on the insights gained and which can help facilitate change.
Situation Description
There are many situations/ events that have so far defined my way of life. However, my academic journey stands out as one of the memorable moments in life and for which I look back and get amused. To start with, I have always been an average performing student. Right from elementary school, I was not into too much studying as was the case for my younger sister. I often submitted my assignments late and could not understand why my class teacher could question my coming to class late. I was often unsettled and my performance was not impressive. Had it not been my mother’s efforts, I would have failed my eleventh grade. I later developed a don’t-care attitude and a low self esteem after realizing that top performance was not meant for me. At one time, I asked my father to relocate me to another school as I had become the laughing stock in our class.
The situation was even worse when my younger sister became the top performing student in every exam. I started hating her. I hated school and every person that questioned my academic progress. I however had a friend who performed as I did. We often walked together and consoled each other. However, towards the high school entry exam, we sat in the school field and wondered what our future would be. Although we saw ourselves as failures, we thought we had the potential to do better. We approached our class teacher who was always good to us. We wanted to pass our exams. The teacher was happy to see us in her office. She agreed to help us if only we could forget our past academic performance and think of a new future. She made it look too easy to be at the top once one is determined. From that day, it became a routine to do extra work, talk well of our parents and always remain positive. I remember our mantra then was “we have made the decision; we shall thrive to be the best.” Our performance improved tremendously. My father had a different view of me and he started calling me champion. My young sister became a friend and was always ready to help in any academic difficulty I went through. I finally passed my high school entry exams; being among the best in class.
Furthermore, my perception about education changed for the better. The conversation we had in the field in the company of my friend and the decision to seek help from our class teacher proved to be the turning point in my academic and general life. I believe I am where I am because of the decision I made on that day. Although I have made other decisions before, I believe all of them reflect this academic turning point in my early academic years. To this day, I am proud of myself and also of my friend who is doing very well.
Situation Analysis Transition vs Change Analysis
According to William Bridge, for any change to be successful, guiding people through any form of transition is key. In my situation as described in the previous section, my ending, losing and letting go phase was full of anxiety. I was on one hand anxious that things will work for the better but again disoriented in the sense that the good future performance was not guaranteed. One question that kept going through my mind was “what if I still don’t perform well after this decision?” will I not become a worse student? However, the cooperation with the teacher was important in managing this anxiety as she often gave us achievable targets in individualized assessments which we did well and hence boosted our morale.
The neutral zone is not a so comfortable zone and there is need for encouragement. I passed this stage with an anxiety almost similar to what I had experienced in the previous section. While the anxiety was still present, I ensured that I remind myself of what the decision means for my future. Working together with my friend, support from family and my teacher helped me realize that my past was not worth going back. On a personal level, I developed new friends and loved my sister more. At school, I developed new passions for all the subjects including math which was initially my worst. I convinced myself that the future can only be made better through the decision I had made with my friend and the help of the teacher. The cooperation with my sister and the help from my parents made the future desired future worth fighting for. Another step that I took was to be inquisitive. I often questioned everything around me with curiosity. Teachers slowly developed a keen interest in my studies resulting in a better performance.
The last stage according to William Bridge is having a new beginning (Miller, 2017). My academic performance and social interaction slowly fell into place as people I had initially perceived as my enemies became my friends. I felt energized and would discuss my academic progress with my dad, something I never thought of doing before my turning point. Additionally, I was so committed to my role and was willing to be questioned whenever my academic targets were never met. My class teacher also became my friend and my academic performance improved remarkably. I always felt that I was comfortable in class and for once, my father would come to school to check my academic wellbeing. I often felt that my desire to qualify for the high school exams were already achieved. I was also committed to attaining my individual targets with the help of both fellow students and the class teacher. I also new this was a new beginning for me when I received a reward for the most improved student in one of the exams we did in school. This recognition re-energized my resilience towards academic achievement.
Reflective Analysis
There are many insights I have gained about researching and writing change. Firstly, I have learned that change can only be possible if one decides to work towards it. As a change agent, every decision towards change counts. The resilience and determination towards attaining the desired change is key in any change process. In my turning point, it took us the step to seek help from the class teacher for us to achieve the much-desired change.
The second aspect that I have learned about writing on change is that we need others to implement change. Although decisions can be made at an individual level, it is only feasible to achieve the desired change if we incorporate other people to help us on our journey towards change. For my case, it took my friend, teacher parents and myself to achieve the desired change.
The third aspect I have learned about change is that it takes time to achieve the desired change. Although we go through different phases of change; with some being difficult to attain, with time, the desired change will be achieved. Consequently, anyone desiring to attain the desired change will need to invest in time. For my case, although I went through the William Bridges steps, some of which proved to be challenging to sail through, time proved to be the constant factor towards attaining the desired change.
The new knowledge has made a significant impact towards my future change initiatives. From the research and the writings, I have learned that change is inevitable and attainable but only when the change agent is resilient (Sokol, 2017). Henceforth, I seek to use the William Bridge steps in implementing change as they help reduce the uncertainty within the change process. Transition vs Change Analysis
References Transition vs Change Analysis
BOMAN IV, J. H., & Mowen, T. J. (2018). The role of turning points in establishing baseline differences between people in developmental and life‐course criminology. Criminology, 56(1), 191-224.
Miller, J. L. (2017). Managing Transitions: Using William Bridges’ Transition Model and a Change Style Assessment Instrument to Inform Strategies and Measure Progress in Organizational Change Management. In The 12th International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries Proceedings (p. 357). Retrieved from
Sokol, M. (2017). Alignment makes the future possible. People & Strategy, 40(2), 4-5.
