The Cliff Is Not the End of the Story

From The Situation

The ground shifts without asking permission. A diagnosis. A layoff. A relationship that ends. A buyout you did not plan for. A milestone you worked toward for years that arrives and leaves you strangely empty. These are not rare events that happen to unlucky people.They are the moments that happen to everyone and they go by one name. A cliff.

Most people experience a cliff as something to survive. What if it is actually something to pay attention to.

From the Book

InWhat to Make of Your Life, Jim Collins introduces the concept of encoding. The particular combination of talents, values and ways of working that you were essentially born with. Most of us spend decades building careers around what we are good at or what the market rewards rather than what we are encoded to do. Collins observes that cliffs, the sudden involuntary disruptions that drop you into unfamiliar territory, have a way of stripping away enough of the performing and the pushing to let the encoding surface.The cliff does not create something new in you. It reveals something that was always there.

Cliffs take many forms. A sudden loss. A firing. A health crisis. A move. Achieving significant success and realizing it does not make you happy. Deciding to retire. Finishing a degree and having no idea what comes next. Positive or painful,a cliff is when one phase of life comes to an end and something else becomes possible.

From My Experience

At 61 my company was bought out. I knew I was ready for a change and I did something that made me genuinely nervous. I asked for a package so I could find something more aligned with who I had become.

I was 61. The fear was real. It felt late to be starting over.

What happened next changed my life. I found a consulting role I loved, stayed in the field, and worked another eight highly productive years in work that actually fit.I made that decision by listening to something I could not name yet.I did not have the language of encoding or inner compasses at the time. I just knew it was time.

That is what a cliff can do when you enter it with some thoughtfulness rather than pure reaction.

Something to Consider

What cliff are you standing at right now, chosen or unchosen, and what might it be asking you to pay attention to that your regular life never slows down enough to hear.

Ellen MZLife Strategist, EMZ Life DesignI help leaders and seekers get honest about what they actually want and rechart their course from there.

CVPCC, Coachville Professional Certified Coach, Member, ICF Connecticut