What does “Taking the Leap” mean? Is it buying another online course? What does “the point of No Return” look and feel like?

Viviana Rose
5 min readOct 21, 2017

How many more quotes and meems of “the leap” will you take until you take yours?

You are seeking; your engine is revving; you know you have to do something (to serve your deeper truth), but how, and what is it?

“Join Our Program”, the pages all say.

You click; “this is the one”, you tell yourself.

You take out your credit card and type the info; “this is the one”.

The webinar said “this is the point of no return, this is a commitment to live your best life”. Click.

Click.

Click.

Done.

Now what?

Or,

You are fed up with your job; you have been fed up with it for a long time. One day you quit.

It is liberating; it makes you smile and breathe more deeply.

(No, you don’t have a plan; and, according to my philosophy, you actually do, but your mind doesn’t know it yet; it’s a scary plan that will frighten and exhilarate you all at once when you delve deep enough inside yourself to find it; it’s there.)

Or,

“Today is the day I will come out of the closet”, you tell yourself. “Whether they like it or not, whether they accept me or not; this is who I am, forget their judgments”.

You send your family and friends a message, or a video of a song, (as my awesome niece did this summer, oh the story!), to let them know: “hey, I’m gay, guess what”.

It is liberating. You don’t know how the future looks like, but you know there will be some boulders to climb. You don’t regret it, even though you’ve been crying for a week because of the utterly inconsiderate, unloving and ignorant responses you have had from people dear to you. Hugs.

Or,

“I am atheist”

“I am of a different ideology than you, mom, dad and family”

“I will ask her to marry me”

“I will ask her/him for a divorce”

“I will change my major/career”

“I am moving to another state/country”

Or whatever it is for you…

Now, we all have jumped on a course that did not deliver what we expected it would. Whether it was our lack of commitment, a poor match, or a poor course, we just felt that it fell flat; in the meantime, life-altering choices have been messy, and hard. This is all okay; it is normal.

Here’s something bold --for which I may get reproach, but here it is:

I propose that folks who are in a journey of growth respond to hard experiences by becoming softer, wiser and stronger, while folks who are not on a journey of growth respond to hard experiences by becoming harder, more cynical, more closed-up and less hopeful.

Furthermore, I propose that folks who are on a journey are proactive in their lives and they take responsibility for the experiences they have; and that those who are NOT in a journey of evolution of the mind and consciousness, live by default and by the emergencies in their lives in a state of emotional chaos, complaint and entitlement, seldom taking responsibility for their actions.

The way is within you. You are the one with the power.

Now, according to the story of Daniel in Daniel 10:12 — Daniel, a humble man who cared deeply, was told this, it is super cool:

“Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humble yourself before God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words” Daniel 10:12

Daniel went on being human and vulnerable as we are.

The lesson of this is that our words matter; they are heard; we hear them too, and they account for much.

Some lines are drawn in the sand with no witness other than the Universe; these are completely valid.

Maybe that is what “taking the leap” means… making a vow to ourselves with the Universe as witness… (no other person has to hear it or know about it).

Anything that comes from the energy of commitment to the highest good is going to produce good fruit in our lives.

And like a sower, we must exercise patience and faith. Not just in ourselves, but in the perfection of the seed that is planted, and in the conditions of the soil into which it was planted.

Having that true and firm purpose makes us failure-proof because there is no failure in a life that is lived on purpose, there are only lessons.

If we aren’t getting lessons learned from our “mistakes”, then we aren’t living our life on purpose, but rather like a deflating balloon flying around in a big room; you never know where it’s going to land.

Sometimes we have to burn some bridges

I burned several, and others, mercifully burned by themselves because I did not have the courage to ignite them myself.

When people who zap your energy leave your life, it is a gift rather than a loss.

Let the bridge burn and keep going.

Many times I felt that I had to keep running to avoid the “flames” of the burning bridge.

When looking back hurts too much and you can only look ahead, it forces you to grow.

We should never resent an experience that forced us to grow, but rather be doubly grateful for it.

It takes time for us to connect with ourselves and find out what we have known all along, — we just don’t know that we know it, — and there is no wrong-doing in that. The voices of society, friends and family are loud; we must seek space to listen to our own whisper.

In a following article I will share an account of the experience of eaglets as they prepare for their maiden flight. It is a chilling mirror experience of our own when we are in the process of growth.

Being in a path of growth is not automatic; we must pursue our growth actively, or we will miss it entirely.

Call to Action:

Join me for bi-monthly thought-provoking talks where we stir the pot of traditional thinking and question things we haven’t dared to question before! We are discussing many provocative topics! Come join us!

Copyrighted material 2017

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Viviana Rose

I have a great interest in the intersection of psychology, philosophy, religion, social structures of power, and fear: the bait that catches us everywhere.