It has been just about one year since I took the leap and gave notice to my full-time job as a Communications Director. It has been about 10 months since I packed up and vacated the gorgeous office I had at 40 North Main here in Albany. At the time, I knew I was taking a chance. And, with one more kid still needing to go to college, my whole family was taking a chance with me. There were months at the very start where work was slow and I started to worry, but kept telling my husband: “I really believe that if I just stick with this and invest the time and effort and money into my business, it’s all going to come together eventually.” But even as I said it, I prayed my gut instinct was right.
It took an incredible amount of faith — in guidance from the Spirit, in myself, in my experience as a writer and businesswoman, in my intuition. Today, I am here to tell you that following your dreams pays off, as long as you’re willing to risk and work hard. And even as I say that, I know there are no guarantees. Yesterday when I was walking on air due to a couple of nice turns of events, I recognized amid my giddiness that things can change on a dime. So I am basking in gratitude for this moment, even though I know there will inevitably be rough patches of one kind or another. Because, life.
If you are sitting on a dream, putting off your calling, waiting for the kids to move out, or retirement to arrive, or whatever the thing is that provides your ready-made excuse for putting off your truth, your purpose, I urge you to rethink your strategy. That doesn’t mean walking out of a job with no plans or prospects. That would be crazy. It does mean starting to take those incremental steps that will get you where you want to go.
Sign up for a class. Get up early and write, paint, practice, whatever it is you need to do. Make a plan. Do the work of your soul and eventually you will find you are exactly where you are meant to be. But everything leading up to that moment is part of the lesson. Take it all in — the good, the bad, the frustrating, the inexplicable. Sit with each thing, and try to figure out what you are supposed to learn from it. Then take all those lessons and jump into the future that is waiting for you to arrive.
