How many times have you thought about leaving your day job, your “safety” job as an artist friend of mine calls her job, to follow your heart.
How quickly and how many times have you then thought: “Oh, but I can’t afford to do that. How would I (make your own list – we all have one).
How many times have you looked at someone and thought: “Oh, she is so lucky. Her husband (or ‘his wife’) must support her/him”; variation: bet s/he has a trust fund; variation: wonder who s/he slept with.
You can’t afford this type of thinking.
It will keep you stuck and small.
Recognize that when your heart and spirit and soul yearn toward something, that is a clear sign that you already have it! “It” can be talent, inspiration, imagination, technical skill, courage, and the means to support all that. We don’t get these yearnings for nothing – they are guideposts along our path.
Recognize that when you feel lost it is because you have been ignoring your guide posts.
I realize that my preferred way of negotiating the world, i.e. jump and learn to fly or a net will appear, is in the minority; so I’m not going to tell you to quit your job and find the nearest cliff to jump off so you can practice flying. Not that you couldn’t. Amazing things happen when bold action is taken.
What I am going to tell you is that starting right now, this very instant, you can take a baby steps toward your heart and spirit and soul’s desire:
- Clear away all the excuses and say what you want – preferably out loud and to one other loving soul. But say it.
- Don’t wonder about how. Just get really really REALLY clear on what you want.
- Pretend you already have it (because, after all, you do). Imagine how you feel, how your carry yourself, how others look at you, how you spend your days – these are the only “hows” you’re to think about from now on.
- Walk into a store wearing this new persona. See if things look any different than before.
- Sign all your checks wearing this new persona ($400 for heat? pfft! Nothing. My next sketch/client/sale will cover that today!). Think, “I am CEO of [your business name – if you don’t have one, create one]” with each signature.
- Find something to hold onto: a friend, a group of like minded people, your own true heart, soul, spirit. When we learn to walk we don’t just stand up and go. We pull ourselves up, we fall down. We take 1 step or 3, we fall down. In the background, we have people exclaiming how wonderful we are for these amazing accomplishments. Find your rah-rah team and let their energy buoy you up.
The world needs us to be who we came to be, not the drugged, sleep-walking, quietly desperate people we have squished ourselves into. None of us can afford this. Start spending your heart and soul and spirit on things that matter. The world is depending on it!
Wylde Women’s Wisdom:
And this is what I learned: if I change my belief system, I can change my life…If we change what we believe, we change what is possible; we change reality. the mind changes the world. Consciousness is the tool of our liberation. Christina Baldwin
9 Comments
i am saying it outloud: I am a self sustaining artist. Do you hear me Universe?
I read your blog regularly and always find wisdom in it, but this is a particularly inspiring post. I left my corporate job three years ago, and am slowly (too slowly, I fear) finding my new path. For a security-minded “good girl” like me, it’s not an easy process, so I need all the encouragement I can get. Thanks for this.
Hi Tammy!
I love reading your blog. You always hit the nail right on the head!
Have a great rest of the week!
Lois
I love the mask on this post. Beautiful simplicity and interesting shapes to keep me with it. Your contact is right on. I have taken the leap, at least once a week I panic and think: job! but I am not permitted. I must stay this course, and trust. And I have no back up, trust fund, spouse, savings, and not sleeping with anybody either. In fact, this week I’m not sleeping! Part of the breakthrough process I reckon. Thanks for your support Tammy.
All so true, and exactly how I wound up as a massage therapist. Now, after being self employed at that for nearly 20 years now (amazing when I say that), I can’t even imagine how I managed to live through the soul sucking corporate jobs I held before I took the great leap.
Now, I am happy but not rich. And the only things that make me unhappy are when I see things that I really want to own and know that at present they are not in the budget. But that doesn’t mean I can’t dream, and the budget will expand again. Meanwhile, I am doing my right work and it gives me a very satisfied soul, which is a whole lot more important than things.
ooh!! this happens to be one of the biggest lessons in Christine Kane’s UYL program too. Daydream about who you will be once you reach that intended place, feel how it feels to be that person… because as you point out you already are that person. Very inspirational thinking, this! By calling it “pretend” you can get over the feeling that you are jumping off the cliff.
Great Post, Tammy:)
One step in the right direction can be to find a parttime safety-job:),if possible related to culture, that is what works great for me. It gives me the necessary assurance and money to buy my artsupplies and it also presents me with many contacts I wouldn’t have otherwise. Of course, alone I could never do it. You have to be surrounded by people who love what you are doing, who support you and believe in you.
Have a great week,
greetings from Paris
Andrea
Excellent!!! I had exactly this epiphany last August at the beach one sunrise. Everything I’ve done since has been a movement toward making the out loud statement a reality!!! We do this so much more joyfully knowing we are not alone on our journey!!
Great post! That’s how it started for me – tiny steps, realizing it could be my reality!
In March 2007 I said out loud for the first time I was leaving my corporate job. In March 2008 I handed in my resignation and have never felt better. It hasn’t been easy, but it has beeen the BEST 2 years of my life since I left corporate 🙂