You can keep going to work after a divorce and still dread coming home. You can look forward to retirement, then find yourself missing the routine you were ready to leave.

In elderly adults, the most common end-of-life signs are more sleep and less food and drink. Confusion and weakness show up too, along with a pulling away from people. Later comes less urine, with cool or blotchy hands and feet and changes in breathing. The signs give a rough idea of where things stand. They can't give you a date.

Major changes in life tend to show up at particular ages. A lot of the job-hopping happens early, before about 25. First marriages in the US come somewhere between 28 and 31. First-time mothers are 27.5 on average, and people who've retired say they stopped at a median age of 62. Knowing roughly when life transitions tend to arrive makes them easier to see coming.

According to a 2023 update of a classic stress scale, the most stressful life events are the death of a spouse or partner, time in jail or another institution, the death of a close family member, divorce and marital separation. Navigating life transitions like these starts with knowing how much you're carrying. Then you pace the changes you can choose.

Feeling stuck in life during a big change often has a simple explanation. You've left one chapter and haven't reached the next. Finding your way from there means naming what's over and giving the waiting period some room. It also means taking a clear-eyed look at where you are and who you can lean on.

When you feel lost in life, try writing your situation down as if it were a story. Put down where you are, how you got here and one choice you can make this week. Psychologists who study life stories have found that people who tell theirs as the person making the choices tend to report better mental health.