The Art of Transition Part 2

Join Tim Austin and his wife Eve Austin as they continue a conversation with Jeff and Sara Simons about their own personal approaches to navigating transition seasons.
With over 35 years of cross-cultural experience collectively, the Austins and the Simons are just the ones to be talking about the do's and dont's of walking through challenging transitions.
Jeff and Sara are both professional coaches and cross-cultural companions to global leaders in major transition. Sara is also a coach and founder of The Way Between, where she and Jeff create resources and workshops using life planning tools, art and movement. They are a family on mission with their two kids, now residing in Denver, CO, after 12 years of overseas work in three countries. 

Sara recently published a book called “The Art of Transition”. Tim personally attended her book launch party, and was quite impressed with what he saw. This episode highlights this amazing resource for those in transition seasons.

Resources and Freebies:

Jeff and Sara Simons, thewaybetween.org
Map your Network Free Download: https://www.thewaybetween.org/products-1
Get the book: NEW!!! The Art of Transition: A Creative Process for Navigating Change Workbook — The Way Between


Eve Austin Counseling, eveaustin.com

Book a coaching discovery call with Tim here: Schedule Custom Life Coach Call — Encompass Life Coaching

Transcript

Timothy Austin: 0:02

Welcome to Navigate podcast everybody. I'm Tim Austin, and this is the podcast designed to take the guesswork out of transition. Whether you have a transition looming in your future, or you're trying to make sense out of a past or current transition, this shows for you. And in each episode, we introduced strategies and tools that individuals and teams like yourself can use to effectively navigate seasons of change. We're all about leveraging the challenges of change for optimal growth. And we are back with part two of my conversation with Jeff and Sarah Simons and Eve Austin on the art of transition. Sometimes we just like to throw out some ideas, strategies, lessons learned related to our personal stories of navigating transition. And this is mostly what today's episode is about how we who some might call transition, experts are still trying to live out the message. So let me encourage you to make a mental note or if you can write down a new practice or strategy that you'd like to take away to try out in your personal transition season. Jeff and Sarah are both professional coaches and cross cultural companions to global workers and major transition. Sarah is also a coach and founder of the way between where she and Jeff create resources and workshops, using life planning, tools, art and movement. And they are a family on mission with their two kids now residing in Denver, Colorado, after 12 years of overseas work in three countries. Sara recently published a book called The Art of transition, which we discussed in part one of this conversation. By the way, make sure you listen to the end of this episode, because Jeff and Sarah wanted to share a free resource from their book. So thanks for tuning in to part two of this conversation called the art of transition. Well, as we come, just have a few more minutes left, and we wanted to kind of end on a little bit different note and shift to, you know, every you know, we call our we call ourselves transitions, coaches, and we work with people in transition. Eve, as a counselor that works with a lot of people in transition, and you guys do the same I do that, but we all kind of have our, you know, background and histories and resources that we've and, and strategies and tools that we've used either by and come about, you know, and, and have kind of added to our tool belt along the way, whether that's by trial and error, failure, success. If, you know, the insight, and and, and teaching and training of others, you know, resources and tools we've gained along the way. But I want to talk about maybe a few secrets of the trade in terms of navigating successful transitions, what have been highlights for you. And and because much of this has come about by personal experience. And maybe we can just kind of throw some things out there to our for our listeners, and hopefully there'll be a takeaway for different things for different people in terms of the seasons they're in and the situations they're in the trans type of transition they're in. But what are and we'll we'll go ahead and start with you guys. Well, we can just put it out there. We want to start with anybody. Let's just throw it out there. Who wants to go first? And second,

Sarah Simmons: 3:36

I would, I would love to hear from you because you've been back longer than we have.

Timothy Austin: 3:42

Okay. Well, you know, I still come back to how can I live this out even when I'm not in a major transition? Like, it's been almost five years since we've transitioned back from our overseas assignment. And you know, I think if I could come up with a list, I don't have a list now. I've had a multitude of lists that I've come up with and check some things off. And then I add another one, but I think if I could compile all those lists, and number them and see how many there are, I'm sure I have a few things that are out there still, that need to be checked off that need to be done that that I need to engage with. So I think transition can be prolonged, it often is prolonged. And I think that for me, one thing I've learned is just the more you have relationships in a place and roots in a place and you've and and a lot of time invested in a place. I think that just intensifies a transition season. Sometimes it can prolong it and not necessarily in a bad way, there's just a lot of lot to process there. And so for me, I think that there was so much my identity being wrapped up in a place in a in a title and a role that I had served in, in different capacities. But still, in general, I'd served in that role for, you know, 20 years or so. And I think that and, you know, then coming back, transitioning back to the States, which, you know, is supposed to be my native land, you know, my native homeland, but it doesn't feel like it. So there's so much and I still go through those seasons, when I feel like, I just want to jump on the plane and go back. But I think that, just recognizing and being aware of that this is a process and it can take, it can take a long time to process, a lot of grief, a lot of loss. Just celebrate a lot of things as well, with gratitude and to cultivate gratitude. I think that's a tip, you know, that I would give is, no matter where you're at in transition, and how hard it is, and how challenging is cultivate gratitude. Find ways to have gratitude and joy in the simple things. And that the little gifts of just daily life that God gives us in gratitude in that way, and goes a long way in helping to sustain us through uncertainty. So yeah that would be one area.

Jeff Simmons: 6:36

I think that's a great one. I this isn't just the kind of improv Goofy, comedic side of me. But I feel like, I find myself in the place of having to simply speak permission into global workers lives, to let their shoulders drop, and just have some fun, and do some simple exercises on gratitude. But especially in transition, like all of us, we just get so serious. And it is. It's a lot to take in, it's a lot to process, right. But we can tend to Yeah, just really put a heavy wet blanket on us that's not necessarily needed, you know, the transition kind of throws extra weight on us anyway. Right. But those times to just stop and breathe, and have gratitude. I think that's, that's great. Yeah.

Eve Austin: 7:35

I was just thinking of the metaphor of the ocean. In Tajikistan, we were landlocked. So we're far from the ocean, I had to use my imagination for all those years. And actually, here in Northern California, we're still a few hours from the Pacific. But I just think it's such a powerful, powerful metaphor. And Ruth Haley Barton actually uses it in her book,"Sacred Rhythms." And so I like to think that the rhythm of the ebb and flow of the ocean, you know. Every 24 hours, there's gonna be a high tide, and then a low tide. So there's these things that you can bank on, but also with the ocean is how powerful it is. And it can be unpredictable, of course, when a storm comes up, or a big wave builds and then crashes, those kinds of things. So, sometimes, yeah, in the middle of your transition, it absolutely feels like a tidal wave, right? Because you're just drowning, that wave crashes over your head. But I call it "face the wave." As a way to encourage people just to not ignore it, and pretend or deny it, or whatever it is, that you think might help it go away, because it's actually not going away. But if you face the wave, you can see how big of a wave it's going to be. And you can actually even back up the beach to higher ground and not get drowned by that big wave. Which is, I think what you're saying, Jeff, you know, about take time to just play and relax, and you know, yeah, just exhale, all of those things that can really help us to not just feel like we're out there in the in the big waves, and it's going to pull us under because we are taking a break. You know, we're we're stepping back from it all. So, yeah, I love all that really anything in nature and the way that the Lord has provided us with endless metaphors and endless, you know, ways to to see how he works and to see how he wants to work in our lives. And we see it in nature, you know, 1000 different ways, if we're looking.

Sarah Simmons: 9:52

Yeah, Eve that reminds me too, when I was talking to you on an email a few months ago, and I was talking about how I encourage people to, you know, engage their body, go for a walk, or just shake it out and the line that stuck with me, as you said, blank it out, like what works for you? Shout it out, jump it out, run it out, walk it out, you know, it was just like that real simple. Just fill in the blank with what works for you to actually engage your body. And all of a sudden, like, the list was incredibly long, you know, like, write it out, color it out, cook it out. You know, it's like, these are things that we do, but until we're actually mindful to do them or to need to do them, sometimes we're unaware of the power that that has in our lives. And I think in in May, when, you know, we were experiencing our third cancellation of our flights, and we were going to be homeless, and it was COVID. If we got COVID, nobody would want us, you know, my anxiety was rising to all new levels, you know, and I just remember, like packing up the boxes and going, Okay, I don't know what this is gonna look like, and I had to daily remind myself, it's gonna be okay. Like you're even talking about like, facing the waters facing the ocean, it's going to be okay. And a friend of mine was just doing these, like really simple breathing exercises on a podcast that I was listening to, too. And that was just, for me, that was really grounding and really helpful. And it was some of what I help other people in. But it was that reminder, like, Okay, this is going to be okay, this is this is the way that we need to just one baby step at a time. Don't look at the huge elephant, you know, take it one little portion of it at a time. And we had so much uncertainty, we just didn't know what was going to happen. The stress levels were at a crazy all time high. And so recognizing, though, with some of these tools, too. They're more about being conscious of them, and filling your toolbox for when you need them. Like Tim was saying, with gratitude. I think that that was my March, and ever since really, my lesson from the Lord is, continue to focus on what is good, pure, lovely, excellent and praiseworthy. And I would just say that over and over again, in some of those stressful times. So, equipping yourself with knowing transitions gonna happen in our lives and equipping yourself with those tools can be really powerful. For when you need it.

Timothy Austin: 12:41

Well, great takeaways, you guys. I love this. And there's I know, we could talk about so much more. But we really, really enjoyed our interaction today with you guys. And I look forward to how everything's continuing to develop and how God is going to continue to use you to resource workers and leaders. And, obviously, folks in transition, one thing I do want to say is, and just to give a heads up to our listeners to be looking out on the show notes, talk about taste, we've talked about taste and see. Be looking out on the show notes of this episode for, a way that you can interact with the new book that we've talked about today, "The Art of Transition." And Jeff and Sarah have agreed that they'd love to share a resource with us. And so be be looking out for that and once that is made available, they can head over to your website as well, which is thewaybetween.org. Some great resources there. So check it out. And Jeff and Sarah, it's been great to have you guys. Thanks, guys.

Jeff Simmons: 14:17

Hopefully next time, we can all sit in the same living room and just put a mic in the middle.

Timothy Austin: 14:32

Well, I have no doubt that we will be back in future episodes with Jeff and Sarah assignments. I just really appreciate them and how they are resourcing the global worker community with such valuable tools. Speaking of which, Jeff and Sarah came through with their promise to offer a couple of free resources on their website, one being an exercise called map your network which Sarah walked us through in Episode One of our conversation. So check that out on their website, the Weigh between.org. And I'll also include the link in my show notes for you. I hope you're taking something away from this unusually shorter episode of navigate. For those of you who sweetspot is a 15 to 20 minute Listen, we are trying to get there at least with some of our episodes. So thanks for joining me today for this episode of navigate podcast. I've been your host Tim Austin and you can also find me hanging out on my website and compass life coaching comm if this has been helpful to you, would you mind rating the podcast writing a review and sharing on social media and of course, you can always subscribe so that you're sure to get in on the next episode, and I'll catch you next time.