Drop what you’re doing right now. Minimize the Buzzfeed article. Pause the AccuWeather forecast video for Memorial Day Weekend. Stop looking at that Facebook album of you and your ex from 2006. Just freeze & ask yourself this question:
What would you do if you had absolutely no fear?
(Hint: Skydiving is a cop out. For most of you, at least.)
I want to know what you would do if you didn’t have any fear of being alone. No fear of being judged. No fear of looking dumb. No fear of failing miserably. Now answer that question again, and be incredibly honest with yourself.
What would you do if you had absolutely no fear?
Go to that place. Visualize asking out your best friend, quitting your job, going through with that business venture, posting a YouTube video of yourself singing in your bathroom, going to grad school, moving to Thailand, getting a portrait of Ke$ha on your forehead…..Whatever. Just go to that place and feel every emotion attached to it.
How does it feel? Right? Wrong? Right for the wrong reasons?
If it feels 100%-in-your-gut-beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt-right, then congrats. You’re being real with yourself, and you’ve got a leg up on 90% of the population. You can skip to Part 2 of this essay. If you’re not so sure what to label those feelings, then keep reading.
Before I get to how to take a leap of faith, I want to take a step back and briefly talk about wrong leaps of faith.
To determine whether or not your leap is legitimate, you should ask yourself this question: Does this come from a place of love or fear? The thing is, if you take a leap of faith from a place of fear, shit gets screwy. Nine times out of ten you’ll come out feeling unfulfilled, empty handed, and wrong. If you’re this kind of person, don’t get down on yourself, though. It just means that you need to dig a little deeper. Do you want to move to LA just because everything in NJ reminds you of your ex? Do you want to join the Army because it’s one of the few professions your dad would consider honorable? Do you want to ask that girl out simply because her ex was the only dude faster than you in the 8th grade? Let go of those fears of judgment, loneliness, and defeat. If you can do that, not only are you in good shape, but you’re one step closer to freeing yourself, which is so incredibly key if you want to bring your life to greater heights. (Sometimes, letting go isn’t as easy as it sounds. There’s an entire essay on liberation coming, so stay tuned.)
Now we can move on to the exciting stuff. How absurd does your personal leap of faith sound when you say it out loud? So nuts, it scares you? Think about this: Yes, you can keep on doing what you’re doing and be just fine. Playing it safe. Following the “ideal”. Or, you can let yourself believe that your wildest dreams can come true. Why can’t they? Really. Why aren’t you allowed to believe that there is so much more for you in this life than troubleshooting and excel spreadsheets? I’ll tell you one thing I know for sure. Anyone who has ever accomplished anything, has believed in their vision. If they didn’t, they would be just like everyone else, ordinary.
Here are the steps to actually getting it to happen
1) Set a date and tell people about it
It’s that easy. Putting it on the calendar gets it out of your head, and into real time. The reason why I say tell people about it, is because you’ll feel accountable and more committed. The combo of setting a date plus the added social pressure will keep you from jumping ship. (Kind of like Facebook relationships. I know it’s a sore subject, but it’s true. You’re that much more legit if you’re Facebook official.)
2) Be prepared for resistance
Not everyone is going to be supportive. Some of your family and friends are going to shake their heads, and think you’ve gone off the deep end. Unfortunately, a lot of that kind of resistance comes from a weird place. Seeing you aim higher can actually be threatening to some people. You’d be surprised how many would love to keep you at their waist side. It’s an odd kind of jealousy. (I.e. quitting the job you all hate)
3) Sometimes you’ll land on your feet, sometimes you won’t. That’s okay
There’s no guarantees, but the more you leap, the better you get at them. Just remember that the most important leap of faith is the one that seems to keep knocking at your door. I’ll close with one of my favorite tough love quotes:
“The more leaps of faith you take, the more you’ll find your own ways of solving problems when they appear. When you crash, you’ll just keep getting better at the pop-up. You’ll live through every leap except the big one at the end. And even if you never leap, you’ll die anyway.”
Lessons In Clarity 