Trust yourself—take a leap

Are you at a point of decision for your career? Or perhaps for your retirement vocation? Does a dream keep recurring and calling you to action? Or is there some other decision that's leaving you uncertain?

It can be frustrating to be in that state of discernment and ambiguity. However, it's also a fruitful place to be ... if you can simply lean into it and accept that you don't really know at the moment which is the right path for you.

If a particular career or job keeps coming back to you, perhaps through several different people and different channels, it's wise to pay attention. Perhaps that really is the direction you should go. Keep a tally of the signals you've received about whatever issue faces you. Sometimes signals come through dreams, sometimes from a friend; and other times it might be from a book you're reading. Be open and attentive.

And sometimes, you don't seem to see many signals at all. In his book Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, Gregg Levoy acknowledges the discomfort of uncertainty but adds: "...not knowing also has its own power. There is the power in trusting ourselves, relying on our intuitions, being able to act even in the face of uncertainty, rather than drone on for sometimes years with yes-no-yes-no-yes-no-yes-no, the very onomatopoeia of indecision. It can be more heroic to be willing to act in the absence of certainty than to refuse to act without absolute certainty."

Trust yourself. Listen to your intuition. If there are dots, connect them. If not, take a leap. If you end up thinking you made a mistake, learn its lessons and move on.