Make the Leap - Part 1

There is something you are meant to do.

The fortunate know what that something is and are moving toward their dreams, if not already there. But for every person who has the “something” figured out, there are multitudes who haven’t. Many only know something’s not right with life. They feel an uneasy void inside that will never be filled by a life of greater means, but must be filled by a life of greater meaning.

I fell into the latter group for a long time. For years, I did what I thought society expected of me. Land a good job? Check. Buy a nice house? Check. Get married to a great woman? Check. Start a family? Check.

But after that, what next? Find a better job? Buy a bigger house? Continue an endless cycle that would never bring true satisfaction, repeating it until the checklist was exhausted with nothing left to do but check out?

Not long ago I came to the dawning realization that working for someone else in a stable job, treading water toward a retirement that may never come, was not my path in life. Yet, that knowledge did nothing to show me what was the path. I felt ready to make a leap, but to what?

It was then I set off on a quest to discover what I was supposed to do with my life. My short-term purpose became a journey to find my long-term purpose. Once I started, I felt energized. I had a goal. The work drudgery of my supposedly “good” job became bearable because I suddenly had a mission to discover what really mattered.

I’ll admit, I fumbled around a lot, feeling my way along the dark walls of the world for a light switch to illuminate my path, but nothing clicked for a while. Nothing clicked until I turned the search inward toward some old dreams I’d cast aside where they lied nearly forgotten.

In Make the Leap - Part 2, I’ll share the dreams I set aside and how I returned to them. But in the meantime, if you’re one of those who sense something’s not quite right with his or her life, don’t be discouraged. You’re in great company. Many successful people did not discover their true purposes until much later in life. What's important is you make the commitment to seek it out. Know however, this may mean making a leap into the unknown.