Aug 31, 2026 · 39 min · 10 segments
If you've ever taken a new job or a new title and kept feeling like the old you, Shannon Anderson-Finch has a name for it: the gap between a change and a transition. Most people try to skip it…
Shannon Anderson-FinchGuest
Jay PapasanHost
going to start like, if we're assuming this new identity, start doing the things and hang out with the people that's going to go in the middle.
It's a tough one because I don't think it's as clear as we would like it to be, right? We would like it to be sort of linear.
We would like the, you know, the end, the middle and the beginning to be clear.
And that's actually the, I think the trick of it all or the opportunity of it all is to use that middle space as the place to practice the dealing with uncertainty, navigating ambiguity, spending time in exploration to see what emerges.
I did a series of interviews with about two dozen people last year about transitions and asked them, actually, how do you know that something has ended? And often I'll take you back to what I said at the beginning is there's a change, which is kind of the external thing.
So people know clearly when the change has happened, right? Like I no longer work at this company.
And they know when the sort of new beginning has started, right? I've started at the new job.
The transition is that inner part that we were talking about, the identity part.
Like this, we see this, you know, with people moving out of corporate, for instance, really hanging on to their corporate identity, especially if they're associated with a big brand, right? Like they almost lead with, you know, I work at Apple or whatever company, big brand company that they're associated with.
going to start like, if we're assuming this new identity, start doing the things and hang out with the people that's going to go in the middle.
It's a tough one because I don't think it's as clear as we would like it to be, right? We would like it to be sort of linear.
We would like the, you know, the end, the middle and the beginning to be clear.
And that's actually the, I think the trick of it all or the opportunity of it all is to use that middle space as the place to practice the dealing with uncertainty, navigating ambiguity, spending time in exploration to see what emerges.
I did a series of interviews with about two dozen people last year about transitions and asked them, actually, how do you know that something has ended? And often I'll take you back to what I said at the beginning is there's a change, which is kind of the external thing.
So people know clearly when the change has happened, right? Like I no longer work at this company.
And they know when the sort of new beginning has started, right? I've started at the new job.
The transition is that inner part that we were talking about, the identity part.
Like this, we see this, you know, with people moving out of corporate, for instance, really hanging on to their corporate identity, especially if they're associated with a big brand, right? Like they almost lead with, you know, I work at Apple or whatever company, big brand company that they're associated with.
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