When an asset is created, it is assigned an instance of a lifecycle .... if you modify the a (global) lifecycle configuration ... e.g., which asset types, or what collaborators, polices ... the asset/s you already created will not be effected... they were grandfathered with the configuration at the time they were created.


If there was no lifecycle at the time when the asset was created, it got the default lifecycle.
When you modify the type/configuration of an asset ... you will move it out, and back into a particular lifecycle instance .... this is one way to assign an asset a new lifecycle instance (using the current configuration, and starting at the beg. state again).

You can also configure a specific asset lifecycle instance from the collaboration-> Edit Lifecycle configuration link.