William Bridges Quotes

• It isn't the changes that do you in, it's the transitions. Change is not the same as transition. Change is situational: the new site, the new boss, the new team roles, the new policy. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external, transition is internal

  William Bridges

  Change, Team, People

  120 Copy quote

• Change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner reorientation or self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens, the change won't work, because it doesn't 'take'.

  William Bridges

  Inspirational, Life, Change

  131 Copy quote

• Transition is the natural process of disorientation and reorientation that marks the turning points in the path of growth...transitions are key times in the natural process of self-renewal

  William Bridges

  Keys, Self, Growth

  67 Copy quote

• We resist transition not because we can't accept the change, but because we can't accept letting go of that piece of ourselves that we have to give up when and because the situation has changed.

  William Bridges

  Letting Go, Giving Up, Transition

  80 Copy quote

• Change comes more from managing the journey than from announcing the destination

  William Bridges

  Inspirational, Positive, Journey

  75 Copy quote

• Before people can begin something new, they have to end what used to be and unlearn the old way.

  William Bridges

  People, Way, Something New

  71 Copy quote

• Change is an event but a transition is the process that you go through in response to the change.

  William Bridges

  Life, Events, Transition

  62 Copy quote

• It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive.

  William Bridges

  Transition, Alive

  31 Copy quote

• Treating ourselves like appliances that can be unplugged and plugged in again at will or cars that stop and start with the twist of a key, we have forgotten the importance of fallow time and winter and rests in music. We have abandoned a whole system of dealing with the neutral zone through ritual, and we have tried to deal with personal change as though it were a matter of some kind of readjustment.

  William Bridges

  Winter, Keys, Car

  William Bridges (1980). “Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes”, Da Capo Press

  64 Copy quote

• All transitions are composed of an ending, a neutral zone and a new beginning

  William Bridges

  New Beginnings, Transition, Zone

  33 Copy quote

• Nothing so undermines organizational change as the failure to think through the losses people face.

  William Bridges

  Leadership, Loss, Thinking

  52 Copy quote

• Much as we may wish to make a new beginning, some part of us resists doing so as though we were making the first step toward disaster.

  William Bridges

  New Beginnings, Wish, May

  William Bridges (2004). “Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes”, p.164, Da Capo Press

  64 Copy quote

• It isn't the changes that do you in, it's the transitions.

  William Bridges

  Change, Transition

  William Bridges (2011). “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change”, p.14, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

  26 Copy quote

• Faith is the soul's adventure.

  William Bridges

  Adventure, Soul

  20 Copy quote

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin