Be Your Own Transition Expert: Part 3 - Trusting Your Expertise
- carolmastrofini
- Dec 16, 2025
- 3 min read
Editor’s Note: Updated from the original July 2025 publication to include new insights on self-trust during workplace transitions.
You’ve done the work to quiet the noise. You’ve created space to hear your own voice. You’ve explored your values, your needs, and your goals.
Now comes the hardest part: trusting your expertise enough to act on it.
It’s one thing to know what matters. It’s another to believe it deeply enough to let it guide your choices—especially in a workplace transition, where uncertainty and outside opinions can make self-trust feel risky.
➡️The Pull of Self-Doubt During Transitions
Even when you’ve gained clarity about what you want, doubt has a way of pulling you backward.
It whispers:
Who am I to know better?
What if I’m wrong?
What will people think?
We live in a world built around experts, credentials, and external validation. We’re encouraged to look outward rather than inward, to prioritize staying safe over choosing what’s true.
During transition this doubt becomes even louder. Identity, roles, and expectations shift and the Imposter syndrome thrives. Well-meaning voices urge you to avoid risk. You may compare yourself to others who seem more qualified.
This conditioning doesn’t vanish the moment you understand your values. In fact, it often intensifies right before you do something meaningful.
🎯Validating Your Expertise
Here’s the truth: you are the expert on your own life.
Your expertise comes from:
☑️ Lived experience
☑️ Reflection and honesty
☑️ Clarity about your values and what matters most
Trusting yourself isn’t arrogance. It isn’t dismissing good advice. It’s simply refusing to abandon what you know is true because it feels uncomfortable or inconvenient.
William Bridges, in Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, reminds us that every transition begins with an ending, moves through an uncertain neutral zone, and eventually leads to a new beginning. The neutral zone is where we release old expectations and reclaim our authority. It’s the space where self-trust becomes essential.
When you validate your own expertise, you give yourself permission to move forward in alignment with your values—even when the path is unfamiliar or challenging.
🌿How Coaching Supports Trusting Your Expertise
Wanting to trust yourself and actually doing it are not the same. Self-doubt, old patterns, and external pressures can make it difficult to act on your own clarity.
This is where coaching—especially through our process of Guided Exploration—creates meaningful support.
Guided Exploration offers a safe, structured place to:
Slow down and listen deeply to your inner wisdom
Clarify what you truly want
Surface fears and doubts with compassion
Understand external expectations and pressures
Build the courage to act in alignment with your values
Through insightful questions and reflective practices, coaching helps you reconnect with your inner authority. It empowers you to see yourself as the expert on your own life and to move forward with clarity and confidence.
🔍Reflection Prompt
✅What would it look like to trust your own expertise in this transition?
✅What one small step could you take today to honor what you already know?
📍Call to Action
You know what matters. Now trust it and act on it.
When you trust your own expertise, you shift from knowing to doing. You give yourself permission to live a life that is fully yours, even when the path feels uncertain. That is what it means to be your own transition expert.
Ready to trust your own expertise?
Book your free 15-minute consultation and let’s explore how coaching can support your next steps.
📌What’s Next?
Coming soon: Owning Your Transition and Reflecting on Your Journey—the next steps in becoming your own transition expert.
