Transitions: The In-Between Space of Becoming
By Jackie Leon
There’s a moment that lives between who you were and who you’re becoming.
It doesn’t come with a pitch deck or a launch plan.
It doesn’t respond to productivity hacks or brand strategy.
Instead, it comes as a pause you didn’t plan for.
The space between what used to make sense and what no longer does.
One part of you knows you can’t go back.
And the other hasn’t yet figured out what forward means.
What’s falling away in your life right now, even if you can’t fully explain it?
What are you in between, quietly and courageously?
This is the transition.
Not quite an ending.
Not yet a beginning.
A liminal stretch of space William Bridges called the neutral zone, the messy, uncertain in-between that most entrepreneurs, coaches, and purpose-led professionals try to skip.
The transition isn’t where clarity lives.
It’s where transformation begins.
Endings Always Come First
Transitions don’t move in a straight line. They unfold in three stages: an Ending, a liminal In-Between, and eventually, a New Beginning.
Most people think transitions begin with a bold step forward.
The new business.
The offer launch.
The title change.
The career leap.
But real, deep, and identity-level transitions don’t begin with a beginning.
They begin with an ending.
And not always the kind you choose.
Sometimes it’s the role that’s taken from you.
The job that ends abruptly.
The business that didn’t work out.
The team that fractured.
The version of your life or career that disappeared, without warning or explanation.
Other times, it’s internal: a feeling that something’s gone, even if you’re still showing up every day.
The Ending isn’t just about circumstances changing: It’s about releasing identities, roles, or rhythms that no longer serve who you're becoming.
What identity are you still holding onto because it once worked—even if it no longer feels true?
What have you outgrown, but haven’t yet given yourself permission to let go of?
The In-Between Isn’t Empty—It’s Essential
After the ending comes the space no one talks about: the in-between.
This isn’t a pause.
It’s a becoming.
This is the neutral zone. The In-Between space where the old no longer defines you and the new hasn’t yet formed. It’s where confusion and clarity coexist, and presence becomes the most powerful tool you have.
Founders want momentum.
Professionals want answers.
Coaches want clarity before showing up.
And this space offers none of those things (at least, not right away).
The neutral zone isn’t empty. It’s deeply alive.
It’s where your doing pauses so your being can surface.
When was the last time you let presence matter more than progress?
What parts of you become louder when certainty fades?
You’re Not Just Shifting Work: You’re Shifting Presence
This is what makes transitions so disorienting:
You’re not just shifting what you do.
You’re shifting how you exist.
You’re not tweaking a business plan.
You’re feeling a deeper way of leading begin to emerge.
You’re not just moving into a new role.
You’re evolving how you relate to purpose, power, and presence.
And often, the part of you that’s emerging isn’t loud.
It’s quiet.
Essential.
It doesn't strive. It invites.
If you stopped trying to become someone… who’s already here?
What would your leadership feel like if it came from your essence—not your effort?
This Work Is Personal
Transitions haven’t just shaped my career. They’ve shaped my identity.
I’ve lived across cultures that don’t always speak to each other:
Guatemala. New York. Montreal. London. Paris. Hong Kong.
I’ve moved between worlds where the language, the rhythm, and even the values were completely different.
Spanish at home. French in the street. English in the boardroom.
Each place asked me to become someone, sometimes before I knew who I was.
I’ve worked in engineering, operations, sales forecasting, and later, in deep transformational coaching.
Each pivot wasn’t just a professional shift. It was a negotiation of belonging, visibility, and voice.
I was often the observer.
The one learning how to adapt.
The one trying to hold all the parts of myself in systems that preferred clarity over complexity.
Not every transition was chosen.
Some came with loss.
Others with quiet rebellion.
And many with the deep, slow question:
“Who am I, really, when the world around me keeps changing?”
Those moments didn’t just move me forward.
They brought me inward.
They taught me that identity is not something you arrive at: It’s something you come home to.
Have you ever reached a point where your outer life no longer reflected your inner knowing?
What part of your truth was born the last time you were thrown into transition?
Transitions Are Initiations, Not Detours
It’s tempting to think of these unexpected disruptions as detours.
As things to bounce back from.
To recover and “get back to normal.”
But sometimes there is no going back.
There is only becoming.
Transitions, whether chosen or not, initiate us into deeper truth.
Into new values.
Into leadership that isn’t polished, but real.
I’ve coached leaders navigating layoffs they didn’t see coming.
Founders grieving closed chapters.
Coaches whose once-thriving offers stopped feeling aligned.
People restructured out of roles, not out of value.
What meaning have you given to what you lost? And is it still true?
What part of you is emerging now that there’s space?
Rituals for the In-Between
There’s no formula for transition seasons, but there are rituals to hold you.
Here are a few I offer to clients navigating identity shifts:
Name the Ending
Grieve the title, the brand, the identity. Even if it brought you success.Pause Intentionally
Not as avoidance, but as essential space. Let your nervous system catch up with your soul.Listen Below the Mind
Dreams. Body cues. Sudden quiet longings. Your next season often whispers first.Be Seen Without Explaining
You don’t need to justify your transition to earn its worth.
What are the whispers you’ve been hearing, but brushing aside?
How do you know when it’s time to listen, even without a plan?
Leadership in Transition
As a soul-led leader, the way you navigate transitions matters, not just for you, but for everyone watching you.
Your clients.
Your team.
Your community.
Your future self.
When you model honest, human becoming, you give others permission to do the same.
This is the shift:
From leadership as performance
→ to leadership as presence.
From authority through knowing
→ to authority through being.
How would your leadership shift if you let presence speak louder than performance?
What could open up if you modeled not having the answers, but being in integrity anyway?
The Quiet Emergence of a New Beginning
Eventually, something stirs.
It may not arrive as a big idea or bold move, it may whisper through curiosity, energy, or the quiet return of self-trust.
This is the New Beginning.
Not a return to who you were, but a rooted step toward who you’re ready to be.
It won’t feel perfect. But it will feel honest.
What new beginning is quietly asking to be trusted?
How might you support it gently, instead of demanding it be ready?
The Invitation
So if your transition wasn’t clean or expected…
If it arrived suddenly, or shattered something you loved…
If you’re standing in the rubble and still reaching for what’s next…
You’re not alone.
You’re not behind.
You’re in the middle of becoming.
What if the end you didn’t choose still holds the seeds of who you’re here to be next?
And what would it mean to honor your becoming, not with urgency but with reverence?
Let’s meet you here.
If you’re a founder, coach, or leader navigating identity-level change, this is where we do the deepest, most defining work.
Not fixing.
Not rushing.
But remembering.
This is the space I hold in my coaching:
Transitions. Soul shifts. Leadership from essence.
Reach out if you’re ready to move not just forward, but inward.