Tomorrow I start a new job back in the city that I left six months ago. It's not just any new job though; it represents the mark of when I started leading life with my heart. (I like this phrase better than "following my heart") Let me explain.
Since college, I wanted to accomplish but two things:
- Travel and volunteer "for an extended period of time" in South America
- Work in the cause-related field, preferably international in scope
We all have our dreams, reasons private to ourselves, and those were mine. Simple. And kind of vague, but hey.
Well, college was about five years ago, and in those five years I either ignored those dreams or catered to their half-ass counterparts, compromising these desires for more conventional, safer options.
Don't get me wrong -- the "compromises" I made turned out to be some of the best experiences I've had and many people would just die to have them. This is what I did instead:
- Taught English in Thailand and consequently backpacked around SE Asia for six months. My heart really wanted me to go to Chile though, but I was too scared to go somewhere no one I knew had never been.
- Worked in the for-profit marketing world, where I worked with some of the world's most recognized brands and got to throw huge parties at shwank events like Super Bowl and Coachella and other painfully LA-cool things like that. Staying in this industry, I then moved around from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where I thought moving cities might calm my travel jitterbug down. (It didn't)
Of course I learned so much from these experiences and would never, ever take them back.
During these years, those primary two goals of mine grew from whispers to shouts in my ears, and I just couldn't ignore them anymore.
To fulfill Dream #1, I up-and-quit my corporate job in San Francisco last October, packed my stuff into a backpack and backpacked/volunteered/traveled through Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina for three months. Quitting was only itty bitty scary because at that point, stepping into the unknown in pursuit of a dream felt 100x more right than forcing myself into submission.
I hadn't booked a return flight, but I just figured I would lead with my heart, see how I felt, and trust the process.
Trust the process I did. The trip changed my life, but I knew exactly when to come home -- all signs pointed to my return, including a health-related one! -- and when I did, Dream #2 seriously fell into my lap.
Well, I should rather say: opportunities fell into my lap due to previous seeds that I had sowed. So really, hard work + luck + preparation made Dream #2 fall gracefully into my lap. Everything figured itself out within two weeks of my return home. It was incredible and almost unbelievable, except not, because by that point I had started believing that anything could happen.
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So, tomorrow marks the beginning of a new chapter and a new mindset that I hope I will always remember to follow and will pass along to my children.
- Always remember to lead with your heart, no matter how uncertain it might feel. Push through the uncertainty and know that each step is a dot that will eventually connect to the next dot.
- Always question what is "normal" and live your most authentic life. Never settle. We are individuals and are meant to stand out.
- Allow yourself the freedom to dream. Even if you can't pinpoint what it is that you want, keep following the voice that keeps calling out to you. Like the Sirens in mythology (except not dangerous), just follow their voices and then dive right in. It's your life. Get sucked into it.
- Believe and visualize where you want to be and don't let anything take that image away. As Roald Dahl once said, "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." So believe.
What is amazing too is that I will get to witness this organization's work on-the-ground in Africa within a few days of me starting this job. I never thought I would be here, but I am. I am finally at the Chapter that deep down, I always knew would be written.
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