Many people are not passionate about their work.

For instance, I recently communicated with a person who had a career as an accountant. She was successful.

However, her heart was not in her work. She would much rather work with animals.

She asked herself if she should take “the plunge” by handing in her notice at her current job.

A widespread feeling is that when it comes to earning an income, we have to choose between financial security or following our heart by doing the work we really want to do.

This is why people so often stay stuck with the question: “Should I hand in my notice to follow my dreams?”

When you’re in that place, it is as if your “inner realist” and your “inner optimist” are fighting with each other about which course of action to take.

“Don’t quit!” advises the inner realist.“Do it! Take the plunge!” shouts the inner optimist.

So which of these voices should we listen to? Let’s examine each of their arguments.

The inner realist’s perspective: “Don’t quit!”

Our inner realist is wary of advising anyone to hand in their notice unless they already have a better alternative at hand.

The inner realist points out that financial security is ever-important: We have to prepare for retirement, pay for health insurance and meet our basic needs. If other people are dependent on us, we also need to be able to provide for them. We have to be realistic about what to do with our lives because we have responsibilities.

To further complicate things, our current and future responsibilities exist alongside past decisions. Many times, the circumstances of our reality have been set in place a long time ago and do not adequately reflect who we are today.

Taking all this into account, our inner realist advises us that the best thing we might do for ourselves and for the ones we love is to do work we are not totally passionate about in order to have financial security. This can, according to the inner realist, lead to rewards further down the road.

The inner optimist’s perspective: “Take the plunge!”

Our inner optimist accurately points out that if we listen to the realist’s perspective, we might end up putting off our dreams indefinitely. Just as the time is often never right to have a child, our inner optimist explains, the time will never be right to make a drastic career change to follow our true passion.

Thus, our inner optimist advises people to make a radical change right away—to simply hand in their notice.

An adage the inner optimist strongly resonates with is: “Do what you love and the money will follow.” To back this up, our inner optimist has compiled an impressive list of people who successfully build their dream lives.

Unlike our inner realist, our inner optimist encourages people to follow their heart. But is there possibly a smarter, more effective way of doing it?

As is often the case in life, there is a middle way. To learn more about it, let us turn our attention to the inner sage.

The inner sage’s recommendation: “Find the middle way by making room for rationality and mystery.”

The inner sage advises us to be both prudent and daring. It asks us to find a way of following our dreams without taking excessive risks. Take, for instance, a business consultant who completes a coach certification program in his free time and starts building his new business on the side.

While the inner sage cares about making rational choices, it also asks us to be aware of an aspect that is rarely mentioned.

That missing aspect is the mystery-of-it-all.

Oftentimes, when we consider making any big change in our lives, we approach it with our rational minds.

However, as our inner sage points out, things are oftentimes less in our control than we think they are. The work we are meant to do is oftentimes referred to as our “calling.” Our inner sage likes this word because it symbolizes the extent to which things are outside our control.

Being “called” has a passive/receptive aspect to it. While parts of our journey require action taking, there is also a humbling aspect to it that asks us to get out of the driver’s seat.

The truth is that it is impossible to foresee what will happen once we start following our own path more.

Our inner sage reminds us that before we make a big change, we can only assume how things will develop. When we actually start doing what we feel called to do, there is oftentimes noticeable support for us.

The acknowledgment that this support exists is different from the inner optimist’s naïve assumption that success will surely come, an assumption based on entitlement.

How then, do we live this in reality? For this, let’s turn to the inner pathfinder.

The inner pathfinders’s recommendation: “Walk the path, one step at a time.”

The inner pathfinder asks us to pay attention to the signs we are receiving as they can help point us into the right direction. These signs can come in the form of positive support (great feedback and encouragement from others to move forward into your calling) or negative support (your current situation becomes intolerable, forcing you to move out of it).

For the inner pathfinder, it is obvious that there are no easy answers when someone asks:“Should I hand in my notice to follow my dreams?”

The inner pathfinder knows that this is not a question to be answered, but a path to be walked, one step at a time. By acknowleding that this is a path and not a singular event, the inner pathfinder alerts you that “taking the plunge” is but one potential step on your way.

The important thing, in the eyes of the inner pathfinder, is to start walking that path. A path that will become clearer as you walk it.

Thus, our inner pathfinder proposes to change the question to: “What is one step you can do today to pursue your dreams?”

And to take that one step.

One day at a time.
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If you would like more support on your path towards creating the life you want, please get access to my interview including a free energy healing here.

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Relephant: 

9 Words to Remind Us We can Conquer Anything.

Author: Bere Blissenbach

Image: Flickr/Shan Sheehan; Flickr/Peter Zuco

Editor: Travis May