The In-Between

BY TARA MYSHRALL

I’ve recently been in the process of transitioning into a new job with a new company. It hasn’t been as direct a move as you might think. There was a lot of going back and forth, wondering which company was the best place for my future, each with its pros and cons.

I’ve had the goal of becoming the Vice President of a tech company for many years, but I didn’t really know if that would actually be possible. I put it out into the universe and I went about doing my absolute best in my business, as I always do. I learned how to show up fully as myself and not conform to doing business the way others around me did. I always filtered what I was taught through my own knowing and I always based my work on connecting with people and creating mutually beneficial relationships.

I always listened and worked with my clients to create a plan that met everyone’s needs. I collaborated and I used my feminine energy in a typically masculine-dominated workspace. I learned how to lead multi-million dollar deals and how to show up in all of my radiance in the workplace.

And yet, I still had my insecurities. As my company was bought out by a larger company and many around me were laid off, I was able to maintain my position and repeatedly became a frontrunner and the top seller, winning awards and prestigious vacations. I had built a reputation for myself, people know who I am, I have great relationships with my colleagues and I know who to talk to make things happen.

And yet, I had been craving a new opportunity to lead. So, when I was offered a job as a Regional Vice President of a different tech company, I knew I was interested in the position. My dream was coming true of achieving this high-level position, and yet I wasn’t entirely sure how to navigate the situation, as I was in the process of closing several lucrative deals at my old company.

What unfolded next was a lesson in being in the in-between. When I got really quiet with myself, the message I kept getting was to pause, to wait, not to take any action just yet. And so that is what I did, despite all logic, despite all the people around me telling me that I had to choose one or the other immediately.

Instead, I chose a third option. I chose to trust myself and to wait until the timing was correct. It wasn’t comfortable and it took constant faith to know that things would be ok and that I could bend a seemingly concrete situation to work in the best interest of everyone, myself included.

This took a great amount of courage to explore the third option. Often, we see things through a binary lens that restricts us from what is possible. It’s by becoming comfortable with the in-between, the liminal spaces that exist, where the magic happens, where we learn to trust ourselves and we learn what we are actually made of that makes life so exciting.

Most people don’t know that this third space exists. Whenever you are struggling with making a decision or knowing what the next step is, what if you took the time to sit with possibility. There might be a third, fourth or fifth option that you haven’t even considered just yet.

Often, we are in such a hurry to get to the next step or the next goal or the next stage in life that we forget to sit and pause and wait. We forget that the in-between holds power, because it is an opportunity to connect with ourselves and who we are and what we actually want. It allows us to take our power back from opposing options and explore who we really are.