One summer when I was in my twenties, I decided I was going to learn how to skydive. Me and a couple of friends found a small skydiving club about an hour north of Toronto and set out to be certified skydivers before summer’s end.

Unlike today where you can freefall on your first jump (while strapped to an instructor), back in those days, if you wanted to experience the holy grail of skydiving, you had to enroll in a “graduated freefall training program.” In this scenario, you’d do several training jumps, assisted by an instructor who would pull your chute and jump out of the plane with you.

At the same time, you’d be expected to mimic all the necessary actions (that you were taught in ground training) as if you pulled the chute yourself. The instructor would then grade you on your ability to remember what to do, and record your progress in your log book. After three of these training jumps, if you’d done all the practice chute-pulling and mock emergency procedures correctly, you’d be qualified to jump out of the plane and pull your chute completely on your own — freefall!

My first freefall went without a hitch. It was one of the most exhilarating and life-affirming experiences of my life. I exited the plane correctly, timed my 3-second freefall perfectly, and pulled my own chute. I landed safely after a few minutes — enjoying the most wondrous view a non-astronaut could ever imagine!

As I said, that first freefall was one of the most exhilarating and life-affirming moments of all time. That particular distinction belongs to my second freefall jump that happened the very next day.

For each successive freefall, the plane flies higher and higher so that you can freefall longer each time. For my second jump, the plane climbed 1000 feet higher than the day before, and leveled off at an altitude of 4500 feet.

I climbed out of the plane, gave my instructor the thumbs-up and jumped out — with nothing but sky between me and the earth about a mile below.

I accelerated quickly, counted off 5 seconds of freefall and pulled my chute. So far so good.

Or so I thought…

Perhaps it was the excitement of reliving the thrill of my first freefall jump the day before. Or perhaps it was simply a momentary loss of focus on the task at hand. Whatever the reason, I found myself falling on my back (proper technique requires that you plummet to earth face down in a wide arch to give your descent more stability and control). Worse still, when I looked up “for canopy” (the technical term for a properly deployed parachute) I saw nothing above me but blue sky — and the plane that I’d just jumped out of less than 10 seconds ago.

Instantly, my mind focused on my training: assess whether your chute can be deployed or whether you need to abandon it, cut it away, and deploy your reserve. You are taught that cutting away your main chute is an option of last resort. You are trained never to take this decision lightly, as there is no guarantee everything will go accordingly to plan or even that your backup chute will deploy (perhaps getting caught up in the main chute that you’ve just cut away).

So, my mind went inward. I didn’t see the ground, the sky, the plane. I simply looked at the pilot chute fluttering in the wind in front of me. It had become tangled up around my leg and was preventing my main chute from deploying. I said to myself in an immensely calm but intensely purposeful way: “You got this.”

Still plummeting on my back toward the earth at about 100 miles-per-hour, I calmly reached out and grabbed the pilot chute, untangled it from my leg, and threw it in the air. I smiled a mile wide toothy grin when I saw the canopy unfold perfectly above me.

My 5-second freefall turned into a 15-second life altering event. On that day it became etched in me forever — if I could do this, I could do anything.

Just then I heard and sound so loud I think it must have been heard by the ground crew 1000 feet below. It was me, yelling in the most glorious, grateful and confident yell of my entire life:
“I GOT THIS!!!!!!”

Fast forward almost 20 years from that day, and I now find myself unexpectedly making a pivot in my career. After three years working remotely as an editor of a major social media blog, that job is no longer. The company I worked for did a pivot also, and my job suddenly became redundant.

It’s now time to look for new opportunities.

I have to admit that having that “main chute”, that safety net, no longer available to me — it’s a bit disorienting and scary. But then I focus in and look to the things I’ve learned and done over my career so far, the connections I’ve made and the opportunities that have unfolded all around me. I’m now a successful professional speaker, author, and consultant, spreading the good news of social media for business.

I’m an experienced (and damn good) professional writer and editor. I’m a connector, a community builder, and an Opportunity Agent. In short: “I got this.”

So now, I look to my next career jump, not with fear, but with excitement, determination and confidence. I’ve trained for this — I’ve done all the groundwork and I’ve logged all my time in my log book.

A lyric from that great tune “New York, New York” says, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” In writing this post and the introspection it’s allowed me, I’ve paraphrased that line to: “If I can make it in the air, I can make it anywhere!” I’ve learned and employed the tools, skills, connections, intelligence, trust and training to take control of my own destiny. I affirm my joy in life and the limitless opportunities it presents everyday I draw a breath.

If you’ve read this to the end, I thank you. Being ensconced in the content marketing world myself, I understand the competition for attention, and I’m grateful to you for sticking with this post to the end. Perhaps my own story has inspired you, in whatever circumstances you’re evaluating right now, to say to yourself: “I got this!”

If I can help you or your organization in any way to focus and achieve your goals, I invite you to email me at don@donpower.com or tweet me at @donpower. Perhaps one day, we’ll hoist a glass (or a virtual one via Skype) and exclaim happily, “We got this!”

- Don Power

I’m a Social Media Speaker, Author, and Consultant who can show you how to find opportunities on social media you never even knew existed.