When you see women who make leaps of faith (i.e. left the corporate world to become bakers, fashion designers, authors, yoga teachers, artists, shop owners), don’t you feel that they are possessed with a sacred power, some secret knowledge that’s unavailable to mere mortals like us?
That’s what I thought too when I was in my cubicle reading about these women and praying for a life like theirs.
I want to let you know one thing from the vantage point of someone who had taken that leap of faith and left the safety and security of the my corporate job to follow a completely different path: There is no secret. We do not possess mysterious knowledge or are initiated into a sacred sisterhood.
What I did possess:
- Commitment
- Courage
Commitment meant showing up for the life I wanted, even if there were no guarantees. All I wanted to say at the end of my life was that I had tried my best and had given it my all.
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage meant moving forward even if I was scared of failure, of what people would say, of not making as much money, of giving up the life I was used to. It meant hanging on to my life vision and keeping my gaze steadfastly and steadily on that. It meant saying yes to my future self instead of the past that kept me tied to what I no longer needed or wanted in my life. I am still scared but my vision for my life is bigger than my fear.
This courage and commitment were a result of gaining clarity.
Before I made my leap, I did a lot of work to understand who I was, what I valued and what I wanted. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just escaping my current situation and repeating the pattern somewhere else.
Because of this clarity, what looked like a leap of faith on the outside suddenly felt more like the next small step on my journey.
Clarity is empowering. Clarity that comes from truth and awareness strips you of your lies and asks you to face the uncomfortable facts about your life. It asks that you start taking responsibility and action. When you do this, it will feel like unseen hands are guiding you on the path forward in ways you could never have planned, controlled or even imagined. (Yup, it’s called a leap of “faith” for a reason.)
Last month, I launched Good Job: A Meaningful Career Journal. My intention was to help you answer: Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing with my life? It’s a huge question. My hope is that Good Job, through its questions and non-judgmental space, can provide glimmers of insight about who you are and what matters so you can make thoughtful and empowered choices about your career and your life.
Answering this question is the work of a lifetime. What may be relevant for you in this season might change as you get older and your priorities evolve. Getting in touch with your truth is never a waste of time. My hope is that Good Job becomes one of your tools in this on-going search for the answer to this question.
(If you still don’t have your copy, click here for your career coach and confidant in book form.)
And when you do get that clarity, you will find that “if we leap, perhaps it is with a great safety net than we thought—flying toward a [life] that calls us by a name we have long forgotten, or simply need to grow into.” (I paraphrased this quote from the book House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erika Bauermeister.)
