Making A Leap of Faith to Live Your Dreams

Last updated on June 17th, 2024 at 11:40 am

Taking a leap of faith has enabled me to live many of my dreams. It’s time to make another quantum leap now.

To prove to myself that I can do anything, to demonstrate my commitment to my dreams, and to make a symbolic leap, I’m going skydiving later this week. Eek!

Another Leap of Faith

Any time I have ever profoundly shifted my life, it required a leap of faith.

Following my intuition and doing things that scare me has inevitably turned out to be a great adventure and helped me to expand my world.

What I have found along the way is that the universe always supports me when I leap. I love this quote by educator, poet, playwright, and author Patrick Overton, PhD: “When you have come to the edge of all light that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something to stand on, or you will be taught to fly.”

Doing What Our Heart Calls Us to Do

I was terrified when I started my own business years ago.  I’d been working part-time at a local community college, which felt secure.

Yet it was right after 9/11 that I realized that life is too short not to do what we most want to do. It’s too short not to leap. That started me on a path of doing all kinds of things I love and working for myself. I feel so blessed to do this. Many of my world travels arose because of an opportunity (a friend getting married in Jordan, my sister renting a cabin in the rainforests of Costa Rica, and getting the opportunity to teach with my spiritual teacher in India).

I have been so blessed to travel extensively on four continents, and it partly came down to me just being willing to leap when the time came. I know we are all given opportunities to make the most of life.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Moving to San Francisco in the first place was a leap, as was leaving my husband when my heart told me to leave, despite being scared of being alone again at 34.

Staying in San Francisco when my job contract ran out was another leap of faith. My apartment sublet was up, and I had no work and very little savings. But I knew I didn’t want to leave this beautiful city, So I started looking for work and places to live, trusting that it would work out for the best.

One day, I was having tea with a graduate school friend, and without mentioning my situation, she asked me, “Do you want to move in with me?”

She lived in a palatial home in Pacific Heights, and since her husband and daughter were overseas, she lived there alone. She didn’t even charge me rent to live there, and I stayed for a few months until I found a new place.

I kept looking for work, and then the universe delivered in the most magical way. When I relaxed, I just followed my gut. I decided to go have lunch one day under the palm trees to take a break from the job search. I wandered down to a little tea shack by the water at Crissy Fields. A weathered sailor with a leathery face invited me to sit down at a picnic table of men. I sat next to two businessmen, who engaged me in conversation.

I was wearing my Harvard baseball cap, and they had also graduated from Harvard. They were looking for a strategic planner, which is part of what I do, and they invited me to a meeting that same day.

Learning from All of It 

Of course, there have also been times when I didn’t leap right away—I am far from being perfect and sometimes have gotten caught in my own stories and lived in my mind instead of just boldly creating what I want in the world. Sometimes, it’s easy to get caught up in our own little fictional story about what we can or cannot do when we are far more powerful than we often realize.

The good news has made me appreciate the opportunities I have even more and ask myself: am I making the most of this beautiful day? And when the time comes, I will jump. I am a fan of leaping and believe that it will make us happiest in the future if we leap now and do what our heart truly calls us to do.

Taking a Daily Risk

In her book The Joy Diet, author and life coach Martha Beck discusses taking a “daily risk.”

She writes, “A daily risk… will expand your horizons, your confidence, your relationships, your achievements, and your happiness so much that in time, you will go looking for the next shiver of apprehension that says you have reached the boundary of your comfort zone. You’ll be please to reach the cusp between daring and fear, because you’ll know from experience that’s where all the magic happens.”

What risk can you take today to move you a little closer to your heart’s desires and dreams?

As former FLOTUS Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Take a deep breath and jump.

And They Flew  

“Come to the edge.”

“We can’t. We’re afraid.”

“Come to the edge.”

“We can’t. We will fall!”

“Come to the edge.”

And they came.

And he pushed them.

And they flew.

Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918