Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age Hardcover – July 14, 2020

This book is so insightful about all the changes we go through, with "lifequakes" along the way. The author described so many things about my own life that I had never been able to describe. He gives us a new vocabulary to explain, and respond to, the life-changing events that transform our lives.

This book is chock-full of stories around transitions of all types. I liked that the author used a researched based approach to his data collection and reporting his findings. It is interview based but, more objective than most non-fiction.

4.5 out of 5 stars. I've not told many people but I had, as Feiler would call it, a lifequake almost exactly 3 years ago. While many self-help gurus give advice on the mindsets and some of the skills for transitions (often the advice derives from their general life philosophies or occasionally from a lifequake of their own), very few explore the transitions themselves. Feiler does a great job of analyzing the life transitions of 225 Americans from multiple walks of life and showing us the tools and commonalities these transitions shared. While reading this book, I identified many of the concepts (emotions, tools, processes, etc) Feiler discusses among the development of my own (ongoing) life transition. It is ultimately a book to challenge the linear-life narrative that pervades mainstream thought and to give hope to navigate our increasingly organic/non-linear lives.Why “4.5” and not just “5 out of 5”? 225 people is a substantial number for what seems like a relatively short period but I think this project would flourish with an extension that might explore other countries, ethnic groups, cultures to either strengthen the applicability of Feiler’s findings or to perhaps broaden the toolbox with other worldviews. (I also had 2 minor complaints about 2 graphs but they don’t affect the overall message. The scientist in me was hoping for more info from the research literature to be cited). I still highly recommend the book.

My three takeaways are 1. We experience three to five major life changes , life quakes that turns our lives upside down. 2. They usually last five years sometimes less sometimes more.3. How you navigate these life quakes as the author calls them will determine whether you survive, thrive or get destroyed by them.The book interview hundreds of people and gave insight into how the people handle it. The worse cases -ones were those that had to handle not one but several life quakes at the same time, as the author did, getting a bad medical diagnosis and his father attempted to end his life.Highly recommended.

This is not a bad book, but maybe my expectations were off. Feiler has clearly done a lot of interviewing and is a good storyteller. I recently heard him on a podcast and was blown away! But this entire book is stories -- paragraph after paragraph of different life stories. Feiler refers to himself as a "lifestorian," so I understand that this is exactly what he is good at doing. And, if you'd like to read an entire book of that and then distill the wisdom from it yourself, this would be a good fit for you. But I feel like the book title and description are a tad misleading. The subtitle "mastering change at any age" led me to believe that there would be a lot of synthesis, analysis, and advice, but there is not. It's predominantly one story after another organized by chapter/topic. It doesn't fell like a finished work. It feels like the author gave me the raw data and left me to complete the research and draw conclusions myself. Sorry; only three stars.

Having survived and in fact thrived through numerous transitions across over 70 years and having taught about the subject in a variety of settings along the way, I found (and find) Feiler’s research and thoughts to be exceptionally thoughtful and helpful. It’s such a significantly different approach than that taken by William Bridges, heretofore the guru of transitions. Just the idea of non-linearity alone is worth the read, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Loved and am using this book. It has ignited so many thoughts!

I thought this was a great book! Well well-written and helpful for me as I ponder major life choices. Helped me see that changes don't break us...they make us.

There was so much I loved about this book; I feel like Feiler wrote it for me (so many of his subjects were military veterans, like myself; it also seemed a disproportionate number were from my hometown). I rarely, if ever, want to read a book a second time but this book just might compel me to do so. Engaging, practical, beautifully written, I am so happy I found this book. ❤️

I highly recommend this book! It has helped me with my struggle in comparing my life to others and the expectation that life should flow smoothly in one long stream. Great personal stories from other people let me know that I am not alone in having a life that doesn’t fit any norm. This helps me accept my life just the way it is and be kinder to myself.

The balance between the insights and stories is very well maintained throughout the book. Along with Stories of other people author's own story gives it additional intimate touch

I loved this book! I have been reading a few on the topic of life transitions recently, and this one has helped me both get a new perspective on my own life and find inspiration from all the incredible stories presented. Definitely worth reading

Questo libro è un must! Consiglio a tutti di leggerlo in quanto ci fa capire che eventi apparentemente molto negativi nella vita a volte sono un dono! Vanno quindi affrontati e vissuti per rinascere...

Author had a world view that he attempts to assert is the experience of all but I didn't find it really resonated.