What It Really Feels Like When You Step Out On Faith

I pride myself on my transparency here on the blog. My online self is pretty consistent with my offline self and I like it that way. If you’ve read my blog for more than a minute and then meet me in real life, I’d like to think you won’t be surprised.

So I can be real with you today and tell you that the last three months of 2013 were some of the hardest of my self-employment journey thus far — even harder than the first few months. Clients were dropping left and right and while I was able to maintain my highest-paying clients, I had lost one-third of my monthly income.

Luckily, I always follow my own advice and I had diversified my client base so that I would never put myself in a position where one or two other people could determine whether my family ate dinner that evening. So I figured I should be able to get new clients and make up for the lose income.

But then I stopped. Because I didn’t want to go chasing clients and put in work to build their brands while continually neglecting my own year after year.

I made a decision to focus on growing YML. Traffic had been stagnant over the past year and I struggled to retain my voice after years of churning out content. But I didn’t just want a great site, I wanted a great platform. Folks tend to know me as “The Young Mommy” but what does that mean and what will that mean in a few years when I’m no longer a 20something? I needed to get serious about my career and my ambitions as an empowerment leader.

So began the Young Mom Summit, the multi-city empowerment tour for young mothers. I had no sponsors (read this post if you missed my “A-ha!” moment), no money and no clue what I was doing. But roughly five weeks before the first event kicks off and I feel incredibly confident about what I’ve been able to pull together.

The phrase “step out on faith” is very accurate. You’re stepping out into the unknown. You could fall, you could stumble, you could get hurt. On the flip side, you could rise to the occasion, your support system could catch you, or you could achieve what you’ve always dreamed possible. There’s no way to know but to do it.

So often we are waiting for a “sign” that we should move in the direction of our dreams. We’re waiting to get caught up on our bills, waiting for the kids to get through elementary school, waiting for a few extra dollars in the budget to go after what we really want.

But truthfully, the best time to go after a dream is any time between NOW and RIGHT NOW.

If you want to be a doctor, DO IT.

If you want to be a sitcom writer, DO IT.

If you want to be a marriage counselor, DO IT.

Whatever it is that you want to be, DO THAT. Wholeheartedly.

I’ve learned that doors will open for you when you lean in (ahem) to your dreams. It might not be on the scale you imagined or as quickly as you hoped, but you will end up where you need to be. I guarantee it.