Project Vision 12/2012 - Step Nine: Take Risks

by Tina

This is part nine in a ten part series called Project Vision: 12/2012.  Get in touch with your innate skills and turn it into a dream job or business.  Or just do it for the love of it and see where it takes you.

Take a joyful leap to do what you love.

I find the single biggest mistake many people make in life, myself included, is not taking risks.  

One person's risks are another person's reward.  

The biggest leap I ever made was quitting my long-term, well-paying, secure job after 24 years.  My job was how I used to define myself.  Where I worked was like my second home and was even where I met my husband.  Because of my job we were able to build a nice nest egg for our retirement.  We were able to live off of one person's salary while we socked away the rest.

To give all of that up was a risk.  Or was I letting myself get too caught up in possessions and things?  When I got the offer to take a voluntary severance package my husband had just begun a new job with a start-up.  His salary would be our only source of income.  His new job had risks associated with it.  But the timing was right.  I was going to take time off to remodel our home which would take about 1 year.  The unknown was a big, black hole.  I had no idea what the future would bring.

But my husband didn't have any qualms about my choice.  That gave me the courage to take a big leap into the chasm of the great unknown.  I hadn't felt that way since college.  It felt awesome and scary at the same time.  And while I didn't hate my job, I even liked it, it didn't feed my soul.  

So, at the firm encouragement of my husband, I made that leap. I signed the papers to take the voluntary package knowing that I might not ever turn back.  Not only was I leaving a great job, but saying goodbye to many friends.  

Fast forward 5 years to 2012 and I can't imagine going back to that corporate life again.  Not if I have a choice.  I don't know if I'll ever make the same amount of money again, or have that same financial security. But I'm doing what I love, which is writing and photography.  Both of those provide an incomparable sense of fulfillment that I never achieved in my 2 decades in the corporate world.  They both feed my soul in such an amazing way.

I am so grateful for having a husband who fully supports my doing the things I love.   He continues to give me courage every single day.  He's also the person who influenced my love of photography to begin with.  And he's always encouraged me to write.

I hope I am teaching my children to discover their passions and to do what they love.  It is so important for them to learn how to feed their soul.  That is my goal as their parent.  To help them take risks throughout their lives and to know I'll be here for encouragement and give them the courage to do what they were born to do.  Until they have the courage to do it all on their own.   One day I hope I see them looking back at us as parents with smiles on their faces.  And to know that they've made it, happily, on their own.

What were you born to do?  Are you there yet, or what are you doing to take you there?

Project Vision Posts:
Step 10: Achieving your Dreams
Step 9: Take Risks
Step 8: Seek a Mentor
Step 7: Take a Class
Step 6: Listen to your Heart
Step 5: Gratitude Attitude
Step 4: Creative Workflow
Step 3: Prioritizing Lists
Step 2: Discovering your Passion and Setting Goals
Step 1: Getting Organized and Decluttered