Standing in the Space Between Chapters

There's a particular kind of discomfort that comes with not knowing what's next.

Not the uncertainty of "which opportunity should I choose?" That's a good problem to have.

I'm talking about the uncertainty of standing in the space between chapters. When the path you've been on doesn't fit anymore, but the next path hasn't revealed itself yet.

I know this space well.

I spent 25 years building a career in tech. Leading teams at Slack, Adobe, Salesforce. I was good at it. I loved parts of it. But somewhere along the way, I realized I was optimizing for the wrong things.

I was chasing the next level, the next title, the next proof that I was doing it right. What I wasn't doing was asking myself what I actually wanted. What energized me. What impact I wanted to make that wasn't tied to a job description someone else wrote.

The space between chapters is uncomfortable because it asks you to sit with questions instead of answers. To trust that not knowing is part of the process, not evidence that you're behind.

When I left corporate and started building what would become Next Level Leadership Group, I didn't have it figured out. I had a sense that I wanted to help people navigate the exact kind of transition I was navigating. I had skills from 25 years of hiring and leading. But I didn't have a business plan. I didn't have a clear roadmap. I just had a belief that the work mattered.

Here's what I learned in that space:

Clarity doesn't come from having all the answers. It comes from asking better questions.

Not "What should I do next?" but "What do I want this next chapter to be about?"

Not "How do I avoid making the wrong move?" but "What am I willing to try, knowing I might course-correct later?"

Not "Why don't I have this figured out yet?" but "What am I learning in this season of not knowing?"

You don't have to have it all figured out to take the next step.

I see this with clients all the time. They're waiting for complete clarity before they make a move. They're waiting to feel ready. They're waiting for the perfect opportunity to present itself.

But clarity comes from movement, not from waiting. You don't think your way into a new chapter. You step into it, see what fits, adjust as you go.

When Beth came to me, she was burned out and had lost herself. She didn't know which direction she wanted to go. She was questioning her strengths, her skills, whether she even wanted to stay in her field.

We didn't start by mapping out her entire future. We started by identifying what energized her and what drained her. We built from there.

What she discovered surprised her. She didn't want to move externally. She turned down offers because she realized what she actually needed was clarity on what she wanted where she was.

Now she can clearly ask her managers and stakeholders for what she does want. And opportunities are opening up for her.

The space between chapters isn't wasted time. It's where the real work happens.

This is the space where you figure out what actually matters to you. Where you separate what you want from what you think you're supposed to want. Where you give yourself permission to build something different than what you've built before.

It's also the space where you need support. Not someone to tell you what to do, but someone to help you think it through. To reflect back what they're hearing. To remind you that not having it all figured out doesn't mean you're doing it wrong.

If you're standing in the space between chapters right now:

You're not behind. You're not broken. You're not failing because you haven't figured it out yet.

You're in the messy, uncomfortable, necessary work of building what comes next.

And if you need someone in it with you, that's what this work is about. Helping high-achieving professionals navigate the space between where you've been and where you're going.

Enrollment for The Stand Out Advantage™ opens November 7. It's not just about landing your next role. It's about getting clear on what you want that next role to be, and positioning yourself to make it happen.