It's not a matter of if, but when.

Permission to pursue what is placed on your heart in a world that outlines steps 1, 2, and 3.

We often default to putting ourselves in a box.

Mostly as it relates to decision-making: this is traditional, that’s going to set me back, I should really be focusing on this — it’s the misconception of practicality that sets us back. If you knew it was all going to work out, you would surely start sooner, dive deeper, and pursue the thing/place/career (you name it!) weighing on your heart. Well…spoiler. It IS going to work out.

Hard work is rewarded. Being passionate about something not only makes you a more interesting person, but it also guides you closer to a life where you can make decisions more freely.

In a recent conversation between my sister and grandmother — that got passed along to me, of course — there was a lesson, as there often is. My sister is going through a “quarter-life crisis”, or so she thinks. She’s weighing options post-grad, trying to decide on a career path, where she would like to live, and big life decisions of the sort. In their chat, she walked my grandmother through the various decisions she is weighing and that God has placed on her heart. And matter-of-factly (per usual), my grandmother said, “You don’t have to choose, you just have to choose which one you’re going to do first”.

I think many of us feel how my sister might have felt. The need to have steps 1-10 sorted out with perfect transitions from one to the next. But the truth is, as long as you start, there is no wrong move. If you are safe/healthy, it leads to valuable life experience, the opportunity to learn something new, or meet new people — it was a win!

I always think “If other people can figure [insert situation] out, surely I/we can too”. And it’s true. We are capable of more than we give ourselves credit.

It might require a little faith and being comfortable in the uncomfortable, but I encourage you to take the leap. Build your life, don’t let others build it for you.