Gear shifting

As I look back across my life, there are times of transition. Transition in career, in relationships, in personal goals, in the way I see the world.

And the gear shifts are rarely smooth.  Instead there is always this weird period--like that ugly phase of a haircut when you are growing it out from short to long.

I think that awkwardness is a bit of a necessary evil.  Sort of like the terrible twos or middle school. Those places where your development moves from one stage to the next.

We want to get to that place of being settled, but instead there is this messy middle.

I'm pretty sure that every long term endeavor has these gear shifts. Careers, marriages, us...

What if the goal is to keep from stalling out or spinning out as we make them? One thing is for sure, once we are on the other side of them we can't imagine ever going back to a lower gear.