People entering the workforce today are likely to live until they’re 100, and therefore many expect these people to have multiple careers during their lives.  As such, being able to make smooth and successful transitions between these careers is likely to be a crucial skill to develop.

New research from the University of Hamburg suggests that the key to making such transitions is to have a well-rounded ending to each period to provide us with a sense of closure before we transition into the next phase.

“Starting a new life phase in a positive and constructive way is often challenging, so we examined methods that could help people find a good start to a new job, a new relationship, or a new home,” the authors explain. “We observed that how people end their previous life periods makes a difference. In fact, the more people feel that they have done everything they could have done, that they have completed something to the fullest, and that all loose ends are tied up, the happier they are later on, the less they are plagued by regrets, and the more constructively they enter the next life phase.”

Smooth transitions

Whilst there has been a lot of research into life transitions, many of these focused on the stage when we’ve actually embarked upon the next stage, ie when we’ve started the new job already.  There is much less work in how we actually close off the previous period in our life.

The researchers conducted several studies involving over 1,200 subjects to determine how beneficial the end of phase process is.  The analysis found a consistent boost to our levels of positive affect and ease of transition, with volunteers exhibiting lower levels of regret than their peers who hadn’t obtained that closure.

So how could such closure be achieved?  In one of the experiments, volunteers were asked to read a story about fictional characters who were facing such a transition.  Some of the stories involved characters who managed to obtain closure, whereas others didn’t, and perhaps unsurprisingly, those who read the story where closure was achieved felt more positive about the story.

Another experiment showed that such closure can also boost our cognitive function.  Volunteers were played a 10-minute audio conversation between a couple of strangers whereby each person was told they had the duration of the conversation to get to know the other person.  In one group, participants were told when they had two minutes to go so that they could wrap up in an orderly way, whereas others were simply told when the conversation should end.

The data showed that those who were sufficiently warned so that they could wrap up the conversations appropriately scored better in a follow-up test that aimed to measure their executive function skills.

“Ending the various phases in our lives in a well-rounded way seems to be an important building block for sustaining emotional, interpersonal, and professional happiness,” the authors conclude.