Cycle of Renewal

MASTERING SELF-RENEWAL

Managing the change cycle is a self-renewing process. It empowers adults to be self-confident and generative. Generativity is defined as a process whereby we learn to follow our deeper interests and longings and bring about change. It helps us to "avoid the dangers of self-absorption and stagnation because we learn to live in new ways that expand our horizons" .

Frederic Hudson of the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara presents 10 Life Skills for managing the change cycle, pointing out that "each skill has a time in the cycle when it performs a critical function but that all ten are important at all times because to some degree parts of our lives are simultaneously at various places in the cycle".

Download Cycle of Renewal Model with detail

10 Life Skills for Sustaining Purpose and Passion in the Renewal Cycle:

    1.   Visioning or dreaming the plan - The dream or vision is the "driving force for the life structure, a source of passion and values. The plan is the plot for making the dream happen.

    2.    Launching - Launching puts the plan to action; it requires "commitment and personal mission".

    3.    Plateauing - Plateauing is the "art of sustaining a successful life structure.... It is knowing how to keep enriching the dream/plan for as long as it makes sense to do so".

    4.    Managing the doldrums - This requires coming to terms with "decline, negative emotions, and feeling trapped in an increasingly dysfunctional life structure”.

    5.    Sorting things out - Choosing "what to keep, what to eliminate or change, what to add, and how to proceed into a revitalized life structure" is the task of this step of the change cycle.

    6.    Ending a life structure - This requires an ability to say farewell with gratitude and clarity, which frees you to consider your next options.

    7.    Restructuring - This minitransition can be used if the life structure could be improved through some specific changes.

    8.    Cocooning - The transition into a new life structure requires "turning inward to take stock, to find your own basic values, and to disengage emotionally and mentally from the former life structure".

    9.    Self-renewal - Following successful cocooning, this step involves a rebirth of self-esteem, a reevaluation of core issues and beliefs, and the recovery of hope and purpose.

    10.    Experimenting - Creativity, learning, risk taking, and networking give one a sense of purpose and power in creating a new life structure.

Source: The Adult Years. Federic Hudson