FORGING A NEW FRONTIER – WOMEN “TAKING THE LEAP”

Why are you here? I hung up the phone today and realized I am bearing witness to a new evolution.  Women leaving safe, secure jobs, letting go and “taking the leap” to follow a deeper calling.  We are a small but growing minority.  A new group of pioneers, but instead of bumping along in covered wagons to new frontiers on land, we are forging new ground to find and follow our soul’s mission.  Right now a small number of us are forging the frontier and sitting in the wings are many other women watching us, waiting to get the courage to jump into our covered wagons.   

The phone call that prompted this post is from another pioneer scared to “take the leap” and get in the covered wagon.  She is hearing the whisper, aware of the “nudge”.  The universe has downsized her job to just two days a week and she is sick with worry about making ends meet. “Can you view this as a gift from the universe?” I ask.  I remind her she has been telling me how dissatisfied she is in her current job.  “Perhaps the universe is doing for you what you could not do for yourself?”

There seems to be two levels of awareness surrounding this nudge to “taking the leap”.  The first level occurs when you realize at a deep level that your current life’s path is somehow not fulfilling a deeper calling.  Most often this is characterized by a “deadness” of spirit which in many cases is linked to a current job.  We feel unfulfilled and dead at work but do not yet know our soul’s true calling.  This is the group that is waiting, watching, still in the digging process. 

Where do you go if you are in this group?  Dead at your current job, knowing there must be more for you?  One suggestion is to pick up Barbara Sher’s inspiring book “I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was”.  This book was a powerful tool for me when I left corporate America 11 years ago.  It helped me begin the process of clarifying my soul’s mission.  With Sher’s encouragement, this journey of self-reflection brought to light some interesting awareness about my career choices.

The biggest awareness I received was the knowledge of a strong link between my choice of profession and the subconscious motivation that prompted that choice.  I became aware by doing one of Sher’s exercises that at a very subconscious level, my choice to enter the College of Science and pursue a degree in Mathematics was motivated, in part, by a strong desire to seek love and approval from my father.  WOW.  I became a math major, wrote term papers on UFOs (really?!) in a subconscious effort to get the love and approval of my father?  Powerful.  The truth is I am a much more creative, communicative spirit.  In fact, at my first job review,  in a highly technical statistics department in the pharmaceutical industry, my boss quickly noted “I can see you in sales or marketing.” This prompting served to move me to a career path closer to my soul’s mission, something I see now only in self-reflection thanks to Sher’s insightful book.

The second level of the “taking the leap” movement are the pioneers who are clear what is NOT their life’s purpose (or as clear as one can be at any moment) and who are letting go of the security and certainty (is there really anything like that?) of what is NOT, to explore and find what IS their soul’s mission. 

This is where I am today.  I detailed my journey in a recent post “Leaving A Job To Follow Your Passion – Courageous or Crazy?  It seems to be characteristic of this group to, one any given day, fluctuate between feeling strong and powerful, like true pioneers, or fearful and crazy like we have totally lost our minds. 

Today, I honestly don’t know where the universe is taking me.  Am I scared?  Sure, but guidance from a deeper knowing keeps me going.  I work to overcome the fear moment by moment by staying present and reminding myself I have an abundance of time, money and love in the present moment.  I look to trailblazers like Eckhart Tolle and Pema Chodron who remind me to sit in the fear and discomfort, surrender the story and just feel the feelings. This leap requires huge amounts of TRUST, in ourselves, in the universe, and in the bigger plan and picture. I get it.

TRUST.  Take time to slow down to hear.  Stop doing.  Stop running.  Feel the emptiness.  Feel the pain.  Embrace uncertainty.  Fall.  Trust the net will appear.  Get into the covered wagon.  Join us on our excavation across this beautiful planet to new frontiers.  This blog is the launch of our wagon – get your gear and get in – write and keep writing here about this incredible journey to follow your soul’s mission.  I wait to bear witness to what the universe has ahead for us on the trail.  Pioneers unite!