Have you ever thought about jumping off the corporate ladder and taking a leap of faith?

Do you dream about it all day, every day? Or never, because you love your job and all it provides? Or something in between, like only on Mondays or the bad days?

If you do dream about it, what will it take for you to finally make that leap?

Well, I finally found out what it took for me:

Feeling like the world’s biggest hypocrite. 

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about finding our soul work. I would link to it here, but I can’t—because I never submitted it for publication.

Why? Because in it, I share five ways you can find your own soul work. The only problem was, I wasn’t actually doing my own soul work.

See what I mean? Hypocrite.

I was feeling awful about it. I really wanted to share the tips in that article, because so many people had been coming to me about their career struggles. Because there is almost nothing in the world I love talking about more than careers.

In fact, the only thing I love talking about more than careers is signs, synchronicities, and spirituality—and how we can step into and become that vision we have of our higher selves. And when I combined those two loves, I realized that more than just finding people a J-O-B, I most loved helping people figure out what their “soul work” is.

The work that lights them up and makes them lose all sense of time. Work that they would do for free, even if they didn’t get paid for it, because they love it so much. That dream job that makes them giggle because they can’t even imagine being able to do it for a living.

But guess what? I wasn’t doing my own soul work—at least in the way I wanted to be.

I was writing very minimally and career coaching even less, in between my “real” job, the house, the kids, and all their activities.

My real job? It was for a company I truly love. The kickass people, mission, culture, and flexibility of this company were only surpassed in kickassery by the woman I was lucky enough to call my boss in human resources.

But here’s the thing:

Human resources is not my soul work.

It is one of the only jobs I could think of that I might enjoy doing in a proper, corporate setting. But no matter how aligned my values were with the company, I was not loving the daily tasks I needed to perform. Not even close, unfortunately. In fact, I started doing the thing that I hated hearing about anyone doing…I was watching the clock. I had become a clock-watcher.

About that same time, I started writing more. And then I found my tribe through my writing. People who were living the lives I wanted to live, and experiencing some of the same things that I had been experiencing. And I wanted more of that.

So imagine how I felt when I wrote that unpublished article, detailing ways you could discover your soul work—and I knew I was not doing my own soul work.

Luckily, a little while ago, I embarked on my own personal Soul Project. This was going to be the year I saved my Self. But I didn’t have details of the plan. In fact, my only plan was that I was going to ask the universe for the next right step. And only the next right step.

I wasn’t going to worry about how long it would take or all the different areas of my life that I wanted to change as part of this Soul Project. I only knew that I was going to focus on one next step at a time. I was going to ask for signs, make sure I was paying attention when they came, and then take a leap of faith if I needed to.

After I wrote that initial article about my Soul Project, my patience was tested. (As it is on a regular basis, since it’s one of my ongoing life lessons.) I wanted the next step to be presented to me on a silver platter so I knew exactly what to do—the very next day.

Well, it didn’t happen the very next day, but when I started running out of patience and really needed a sign, I did what I often do. I asked the universe—out loud—to smack me upside the head with a sign. Because I was concerned that I was overthinking and over-busying, as usual, and missing the signs.

Two days later, I received a message about a job opportunity. A job that would combine my love for words, connection, social media, and mindful topics I already read as much as I could in my free time.

If there is a more perfect job for me, I’m not sure what the heck it would be. But I will say this—it is so far out of my comfort zone, I can’t even see my comfort zone anymore.

And that is how I knew it was something I needed to try.

Because it was the scary choice. The thing that made me feel sick to my stomach.

Because it wasn’t my safe human resources job that I knew I could do for a company I loved.

This one scared the crap out of me. Still does.

And that’s how we know exactly what we need to do.

Even knowing how many people we might disappoint. People we respect and admire, and never want to disappoint.

Because if it comes down to a choice between staying safe or doing the hard thing and disappointing people in order to grow as a person and do my own soul work, I will choose my soul.

Every time.

Will you?

What are you willing to give up for your own soul work?

Oh, and that other article about how to find your own soul work? I am so submitting that for publication now.

“We teach best what we most need to learn.” ~ Richard Bach

Relephant bonuses:

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Author: Christy Williams

Image: Office Space still

Editor: Travis May