[Edited March 2015]

When a close working colleague took his own life last November, it was a wakeup call for me to pay attention to the effects and implications of transitions on individuals. I recalled one of the conversations I had with this colleague upon his re-entry to a lower level corporate job three years after he retired from a very senior position in a big company. The discussion regarded important decision making. His comment to me was, “I had to make a very important decision this past Saturday – do I make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or do I made macaroni and cheese for my grandson’s lunch?” The comment was thoughtful, yet the sadness in his eyes and lackluster in his voice told me another story. He was depressed. The joy of being a grandfather in a new life setting could not be appreciated in this case. His transition between the two lives was not properly prepared for nor bridged.

I am a corporate senior executive in transition, so what happened to my colleague resonates with me. I am experiencing it now. In my case, it’s the pending “retirement” from a corporate community that I have been in for over 42 years. It has been a fabulous career and rewarding professional journey. The journey took me from a college graduate who knew very little, to an accomplished leader of organizations that have multi-faceted aerospace business components with high value portfolios, and a complex skill base of varied engineering disciplines. It indeed was a kingdom that I shaped and reshaped to make my own. I had the power, influence, challenge, and status of someone who was very much in control. Like my colleague, I had it all professionally. Almost…

So, what about this transition? For me and many others in my situation, we are celebrated and expected to carry our corporate glories to the next stage of life, however we define that to be. For some, this often involves a self-started consultant practice, becoming a board member of a for-profit or non-profit institution, or morphing to another corporate job. For others, world travel, community volunteerism, household projects, family life redefinition, and sports of choice become the centerpieces of everyday life. All these seem to be normal, admirable, and happy transition activities. However, what about the heart? How does one align the mind and the heart to reintegrate one’s whole being into an enriched and full next stage of life?

To be fully in touch with how I feel is part of my transition preparation; anxiety and its associated emotional and physical attacks have become the center stage of my struggles. The extreme grief over the loss of almost a lifetime of accomplishments somehow puts living in a different light. I have a wide range of support networks, and enough community volunteer work that could amount to a full-time job or two. I have been graciously recommended plans and offers for future career possibilities. Yet, there is something missing. In addition to the feelings of loss, I fear that the glory may never appear again, in whatever form. It is from my own transition that I truly understand how my colleague was feeling.

It is through the discoveries from my transition journey that I am answering the call to help those who are in need of planning for life transitions, whether it’s a senior executive who is retiring by choice or by corporate policies, or an individual who longs for a change in life direction. I am fully aware and appreciative of the emotional entanglement that occurs from the shifting of self, such as in individuals who are used to making millions and billions of dollar decisions every day, who had control over the lives of hundreds and thousands of employees, to a community citizen where life structures and priorities have changed. To me, the decision between making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or macaroni and cheese for lunch can be just as important and powerful, if not more rewarding. The key is to own that new sense of self through thoughtful transition planning. I, myself, am committed to traveling that rewarding path, and I invite you to join me.