The Brink.

Have you ever felt like you are on the brink?

On the brink of life opportunity? On the brink of your calling? It is something big that you know is meant for you. You were specially crafted to do the work the opportunity requires.

It’s a teeter-totter feeling where you are literally on the edge of a precipice. If you were to close your eyes in this moment (close your eyes now) you can feel that rocking feeling back and forth.

I’ve been thinking a lot about ego these days. Specifically my own, and the role of ones’ conscious and specifically that space that is completely unconscious. I would say most of us have had that teeter-totter feeling multiple times in our lives and ego holds us back. We’re meant to go over the edge, but we hold ourselves back.

We are supposed to experience the freefall that will literally level us up through impact (or through the transformation that happens between the time one jumps off the proverbial cliff into the dark abyss of opportunity). The act of not knowing, being afraid, and stepping into pure darkness is where strength begins to build.

This past year, some of us rocked too long on that precipice, and finally, we were kicked off into the abyss. The free fall has been longer than normal or longer than prior instances. It’s been seemingly bottomless for many of us … which means the euphoric thrills and terrifying pull and force of gravity have been greater than perhaps most have seen in our lifetime.

This force has been a thing of dreams and nightmares. It has reinforced and built steely character for a good 10%+ of the U.S. population. However long you have been, are, or will be in the darkness of transformation the light has begun to slowly break for many as of March 1st 2021. We do find some people have regrets that they could not truly spread their arms during the plummet and enjoy the opportunity through creation.

There’s a misnomer out there that people in freefall are just relaxing and taking a joy ride down. Umm, transformation, the contorting and resurfacing of a person’s identity is not a joy ride. People during this time are struggling to survive and reconcile their worth with society, that is not a joy ride. Try it and come back to me.

These people in free fall are often knowingly or subconsciously creating for themselves, and for others. I recognize during my own freefall there has been immense growth. Personal, professional, entrepreneurial, community-based growth through serving across my networks.

I’ve consistently reached my arms out to be a doer. Some of us in free fall look like synchronous skydivers to those that are positioned above us. We are taking the hands of others and then shift position on the way down to realign to reinforce ourselves and others, simultaneously. We form a system.

The dichotomy here is interesting. The synchronicity required to serve others while positioning oneself to land in the greatest possible position can be best characterized as experienced resilience. When one is in great need, it’s particularly challenging to keep a level head, streamlining ones’ emotions and keeping a straight-line cool head that is full of positive energy. Now, try doing this authentically. (hysterical laughter) If you are smiling here you know what I’m referring to, it’s something life trains you for – irrational optimism.

To own that irrational optimism, you’ve likely been body checked by life more often than others, from different directions, fiercely, harder by strangers, and by people you know and trust. Being body checked can be thrilling am I right? (I am wryly smiling right now.) There’s power in being the recipient of great force that’s intent on destroying you, but instead reinforces your resilience with a great plume of impact.

As for my direct ability to impact others through tenacity, I’m in marketing, I’m not a recruiter. That said, do I have the direct ability to place people in their next role? No, but each of us experiences our brink of opportunity by providing an assist anywhere we can.

Wherever we are comfortable, and when we are operating where we are uncomfortable, we have a unique ability to create that plume of impact others desperately need. Literally, any time we overreach to tightly snatch the hand of another to pull them up or towards us with our strength, that is an act of great courage, strength and is us, pouring ourselves into another.  

Again, for me, this instance of free fall has been unique. It’s been exceptionally harsh. The oddity is, I didn’t feel the harshness of it until very late. I really was divinely insulated until late October of 2020. Literally, akin to the poem “Footprints in the Sand” I was able to act on the behalf of others suffering. I seamlessly served, connected others, built my connections, and launched the Podcast Employment Straight Talk while recruiting speakers for SE Wisconsin’s largest job search and networking group – PONG MKE. I divinely received a reprieve from the emotional and mental impact for 18 months.

EIGHTEEN Months.

The time of free fall, as we know is a time of opportunity. Anyone that has been through it knows the trickery is in harnessing the mind, and body’s energy to focus on planting seedlings for life’s next great assignment. When you’re planting the seedlings, imagine there is no firm ground. The ground isn’t shaking beneath you, it literally isn’t there.

A great mental visual for those of the waterbed generation is attempting to stand with conviction on a waterbed because that is the best stability and solidarity one will get in the moment. Again, remember you’re trying to grasp hands with other enlightened, synchronous free fallers to break through to be the next person you’re meant to be.

A blank slate, a blank page, a dark chasm to be defined is a great gift … it’s the direction everyone is plummeting. The gift is in the creative freedom to literally step forward, serve, create, build and pour into others. Through these actions, people scale their life. When your free fall ends, and you hit your bottom, remember to look down at the earth you’ve impacted. Take a good look at the imprint your body has made on the earth.

That outline of ones’ being on the earth is the new “Footprint in the Sand” that divinely reignites the new path. Whomever you are … whether you’re an ally to free fallers or you yourself are a proud member of the synchronous sky diving team, carry those feelings of falling over the precipice forward. Write it down, document it … don’t forget the thrilling, terrifying, joyful, exploratory experience of transformation. … you will need those memories, the skills, and the people you met along the way to assist during the next transformational free fall.

Scale your life.

Project Light It Up ?Employment Straight Talk published by Heather Ann Koehn.

Writer’s Bio:

Heather Ann Koehn conducted 1,000+ one-on-one interviews from March – October of 2020 to network and find her next role. The insights, assessments, and statements shared here were developed from that statistically significant, unprecedented research, of one-on-one interviews and through large-scale volunteer work during the COVID pandemic of 2020.

Heather is a global marketer and business development professional with an uncanny skill to connect with and to others through vulnerable conversations. She is the founder of the Podcast, Employment Straight Talk (Subscribe and Share), and is the founder of Project Light It Up, a large scope of work intended to serve humanity in helping others to step through the fire to fulfill their life calling.