WHEW!!!  What a week!

After about 45 hours of writing crammed into about five days, and then a 12 hour day of “real” work on Saturday, I ended up listening to my body and SLEEPING much of Sunday and Monday.  Aside from a little twang of guilt, I am now feeling MUCH better, albeit bummed by the weather, and ready to get back to work!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately today about what Michael Hyatt, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, wrote yesterday in his daily blog post:

I know lots of people with big dreams. But they are afraid to pursue them. They are unwilling to take the plunge, waiting until they reach the point of absolute certainty. But it never comes. And it never will.

This is the problem with commitment. You must act on limited information. Whether it is marriage, starting a new career, or leaving a good job to pursue your dream. You do your best to gather the best information you can, but then you must act. If you don’t, you risk “dying with the music in you.”

Does this sound familiar to you?  It might, because I wrote about it here, in my attempt to explain both why I blog and what is behind the WEIRD name.  I described coming to the point at which I determined:

I must own my voice. My mistakes. My successes. I must take a deep breath and sing out, lest I waste away in quiet desperation, my song dying within me without ever having been heard.

Michael sums up this desperate act of faith in this quote: Leap and the net will appear.

This is not easy—this putting it all out there.  Each leap is bigger than the next.  Amassing my “small army of remarkable people”, at the suggestion of Chris Guillebeau (for whom I would normally link you to his site, but I can’t get it to work this morning).  Taking the attitude of a professional rather than an amateur, at the suggestion of Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art.  Taking a week off without pay to work on my manuscript, signing up for a writer’s conference knowing I can’t really afford it, working under deadlines I question if I can meet with the demands of two very active small people in my life.  That’s a lot of leaping, lately, for one who greatly dislikes heights for the distinct reason that she doesn’t like FALLING.

But I’ve stood for too long at this ledge.  You reach a point where you either just have to suck it up and leap, or you sigh and walk away.

I can’t live with walking away.

There’s a saying I use in counseling—when the fear of staying the same becomes greater than the fear of changing, you’ll change.

I cannot stay the same.  I cannot walk away.  The balance has been tipped.  It hurts to much to stay here.  I have to leap, scared to death of what will happen but even more frightened of what won’t happen if I don’t.

Maya Angelou once wrote, You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Here’s to courage, consistency, and confidence in the Good Lord Above that the net will be there when we need it.

(Oh God, let the net be there when we need it!)

counseling inspiration motherhood parenthood quotes reflection spiritual spiritual growth trust writing