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William Bridges

The Way Of Transition: Embracing Life's Most Difficult Moments Paperback – Dec 6 2001

by William Bridges (Author)

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William Bridges' lifelong work has been devoted to a deep understanding of transitions and to helping others through them. When his own wife of thirty-five years died of cancer, however, he was thrown head-first into the kind of painful and confusing abyss he had known before only in theory. An honest account of being in transition, this uncommonly wise and moving book is a richly textured map of the personal, professional, and emotional transformations that grow out of tragedy and crisis. Demonstrating how disillusionment, sorrow, or confusion can blossom into a time of incredible creativity and contentment, Bridges highlights the profound significance and value of endings in our lives.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publication date

Dec 6 2001
Dimensions

13.97 x 1.6 x 20.96 cm
ISBN-10

073820529X
ISBN-13

978-0738205298
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Product description

About the Author

William Bridges, PhD, was an internationally known speaker, consultant, and author, and a preeminent authority on change. For decades, he showed thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations how to deal more productively with transition.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Da Capo Lifelong Books; Reprint edition (Dec 6 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 073820529X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0738205298
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 266 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 1.6 x 20.96 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #251,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,082 in Sociology (Books)
- #7,144 in Practical & Motivational Self Help
- #7,288 in Personal Transformation in Self-Help

Customer Reviews:
201 ratings

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William Bridges

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William Bridges is an internationally known speaker, author, and consultant who advises individuals and organizations in how to deal productively with change. His ten books include an expanded third edition of his best-seller, Managing Transitions (2009), and the updated second edition of Transitions (2004), which together have sold over one million copies. Before that he published The Way of Transition (2000), a partly autobiographical study of coming to terms with profound changes in his own life and transforming them into times of self-renewal. He published Creating You & Co., a handbook for creating a work-life that capitalizes on today's frequent and disruptive changes, and the ground-breaking Jobshift.

For three decades, he has guided thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations through the maze of the transitions that accompany change. He focuses on the Transition, or psychological reorientation, people must go through to come to terms with changes in their lives. His three-phase model of Endings, Neutral Zone and New Beginnings is widely known. The professional seminars that he launched in 1988 have now certified more than 5,000 managers, trainers and consultants worldwide to conduct Transition Management programs. His later work has focused on bringing the principles of Transition Management into the non-profit world. He has been a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and corporate meetings in the United States and abroad.

Educated originally in the humanities at Harvard, Columbia, and Brown Universities, he was (until his own career change in 1974) a professor of American Literature at Mills College, Oakland, CA. He is a past president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. The Wall Street Journal listed him as one of the top ten independent executive development presenters in America.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

201 global ratings

5 star		69%
4 star		14%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		5%

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Top reviews from Canada

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ggn

Really good for working your way through transition - planned or ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 17, 2016

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Really good for working your way through transition - planned or unplanned - life changes and deaths. Some of it is a bit academic but found it very helpful twice and loaned it out to others that have also found it helpful.

Helpful

LTisi

One of the best books I have ever read!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 24, 2014

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Masterful guidance at times of change. I have read this book three times and bought it for many people I care for.

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Maura McGrath maura mcgrath

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 27, 2015

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very important

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 3, 2012

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William Bridges writes so informally it is challenging to read. He often has run on sentences that jump between present and past tense. A very frustrating read, especially with unnecessary fillers. It is as if he writes "sigh" "ummm" "ugh" throughout the text. A very disappointing writing style coming from an English professor.

One person found this helpful

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Bill Jackson

Rolling with the Changes

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 28, 2001

In the wide-ranging realm of self-help books, "The Way of Transition" is something of a cross between "Passages" and "Tuesdays with Morrie." Like "Passages," it describes in simple, easily understood terms the stages one goes through when dealing with an important life transition. Like "Tuesdays," it draws on a painful yet inspirational encounter with fatal illness - in this case, that of the author's wife.
Those attempting to deal with big transitions in their lives are likely to find this book comforting and helpful. I did. But don't pick it up if you're looking for easy answers, clever techniques, or lists of things to do to turn your life around. As the author himself puts it, the "way" in the book's title is meant to describe a path, not a technique. So his approach is more descriptive than prescriptive. He wants to help you understand what you're going through but doesn't presume to have the answers. He leaves it up to you to figure out what to do.
Bridges' main point is a fairly simple one: that the rootless, confusing transition period one undergoes following a death in the family, divorce, career change or other transformative event should be embraced, not avoided or evaded. These difficult periods of transition, he argues, are precisely the times when we are most likely to be creative and open to inspiration. He illuminates this deceptively simple message with stories from his own life, especially how he dealt with his late wife's battle with cancer. He also sprinkles in lots of poignant quotes from others to help get the point across.
At times, the book borders on the spiritual. There is an underlying assumption that each of us has a sort of personal spiritual quest buried within us and that the purpose of our lives - and all those painful transitions - is to somehow coax out this latent quest and bring us a little closer to enlightenment. Most people who read self-help stuff would probably accept that assumption. But those whose temperament and tastes are more clinical than spiritual might find this short volume a little too warm and fuzzy.

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P. Lozar

Moving -- and very timely

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 9, 2001

I read Bridges' "Transitions" about four years ago, when I had just been laid off unexpectedly from my job, and I found it extremely helpful and reassuring. So I bought this book mostly out of curiosity how Bridges himself would handle one of life's most painful transitions. He begins by alternating between an autobiographical account of his wife's final illness and death, and more theoretical chapters discussing transitions in general. But as the story continues with his stunned reaction to her death, and his attempts to embark on the next phase of his life, the personal and the theoretical merge. I was impressed by his honesty -- he's candid about his self-doubts, about himself and his late wife (warts and all), and about the joys and struggles in their 37-year marriage. This made his story all the more compelling by showing him not as the all-knowing "expert," but as someone who's gained his expertise from hard-won personal experience. As he points out repeatedly, life changes don't follow a neat, predictable pattern; but if we embrace the process of transition and are open to what it brings, everything DOES work out eventually (his tentative, bumbling attempts at dating a casual acquaintance develop into love and a second marriage). The book is a fascinating story, but along the way I learned a great deal about life transitions in general (every parent should read his remarks about planning your children's lives!). And at a time when we in the US have just gone through a painful transition ourselves, and are struggling to redefine ourselves and our role in the world, I found his remarks surprisingly relevant on a larger scale too.

3 people found this helpful

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Roger E. Breisch

A Generous and Loving Gift

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 10, 2001

If you have read any of his earlier work, you already know of Bill Bridges' honest, witty and compelling style. It is his generosity and wisdom that are at the heart of this, his newest book. More than 3-years ago, the pending and eventual death of his wife, Mondi, called him to reexamine every aspect of his 25+ years of experience helping thousands deal with transition. This deeply emotional time also afforded him the opportunity to explore in detail his 37-year relationship with Mondi. His heartfelt descriptions of the trauma serve as an opening for him to share how he came to know himself and his wife in very honest ways. He also is able to tell of his renewal...his new love and second wife Susan. Interspersed with the touching narrative, Bill revisits his thoughts about how transition holds out the promise of renewal. This book made me cry, allowed me to laugh and touched me deeply.
It is difficult to imagine him giving the world a more honest, touching, and thoughtful gift.

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Top reviews from other countries

aflyingdiva

Transitions the story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 14, 2017

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A brilliant personal insight into the transitional phases of our lives.
Helps others to work out and work through the impact of change

Julia

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 8, 2016

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Should definitely be read in conjunction with the other two books for maximum effect

One person found this helpful

tonyb

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 19, 2018

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Good read

A Reader

Wonderful book, with a notable exception...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2017

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I would give 98% of this book 5 stars. I'm giving it 4 because of one chapter near the end.

I'm a Bridges fan. "Transitions" has helped me through some trying times. Bridges definitely has a spiritual approach in "The Way of Transition." His academic background also shows. His exercises usually involve educational situations: imagining you're in a class or writing chapters in a book. This may not appeal to those who didn't like school. It so happens that I have a distinctly spiritual outlook and that I loved school, so these weren't issues for me. For me they were strengths.

I greatly appreciate the distinctions he makes--between change and transition (others have noted this) and between decisions and choices, among others that are very valuable. I love his re-telling of "The Wizard of Oz" as the archetypal life "journey." I find his wit refreshing. I find his raw honesty compelling.

I would recommend this book, and I already have. I will read it more than once in my lifetime.

My caveat involves an omission, not a commission. In his chapter, "Finding Myself in the Neutral Zone" he describes (SPOILER ALERT) his emergence from that zone by finding a new love, his current wife. Don't get me wrong--I think that Bridges deserves every happiness! I understand that what I find missing may simply not be his book. No one can be everything to everyone. I confess, though, that when he describes discovering a new love in a woman 18 years his junior and that he's surprised, I think something like, "Well, perhaps Bridges finds this experience unpredictable; to me it seems nearly inevitable." That men in their 60s finding women in the 40s to be attractive companions is a documented cultural reality. It's not anywhere near unusual. And, again, don't get me wrong--these people deserve every happiness and it's lovely that they found one another whatever their ages! Whether or not their union is a common cultural reality doesn't cancel out their individual transitions and their happy ending.

My issue comes with the fact that Bridges no where (unless I missed it!) addresses that such a new beginning would be unlikely, to say the least, for a woman of 63. His second wife originally approached him. How many 45-year-old men would approach a 63-year-woman?

I know from reading the other reviews that a number of widows have found his book very supportive, and I'm not surprised. And the current U.S. political situation in which it's so evident that the female experience has been consistently ignored or dismissed (by both men and some women) may have made me more sensitive than I otherwise would have been. Many of my widowed or divorced friends in their 50s through 80s have told me that they've given up on having love in their lives. The qualifying men are looking for women 20 years (or more) their junior, or for "nurses." Furthermore, married women of their acquaintance find them threatening and frequently make sure not to include them socially.

Ironically, if Bridges weren't so perceptive a witness of his own and others' processes, I wouldn't expect him to comment on this reality. So, as I said, it's an omission, but perhaps not his to remedy.

I'm grateful that Bridges decided to share his journey, including the setbacks, the emotional pain, and the misguided thinking. He's a courageous man.

(p.s. I never catch all the typos.)

44 people found this helpful

Liz M

Big mistake in publishing!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

Pages 1 to 132 are about blood glucose and diabetes. The transitions book begins with chapter 8 at page 133. Whoever published and printed this book made a huge mistake and put a book about diabetes in the place of chapters 1/7 of the real book. How could this happen?

4 people found this helpful

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