Category Archives: Making the Decision to Leap

These posts talk about all of the little ways that added together caused me to make my final decision to take the leap of faith.

We’re Not Promised A Tomorrow

Posted on: July 9th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - Leave a comment

One of the biggest battles I had when it came to quitting my job was that I had already invested 26 year there and only had 3 1/2 years to go until I could retire with a great pension check coming in every month for the rest of my life. It seemed so foolish not to wait it out after sticking it out there as long as I already had. Nobody does that!

On top of that, I’ve always been a very responsible person that does what I need to do and what I am supposed to do without any regard to how I feel about it. I had two children that I had to support solely on my own and so there was no room for questioning whether to continue working there or not regardless of how miserable it made me. I considered myself a “lifer”, like a prison sentence.

But once I realized about 15 years ago that we were all put here for a reason, for a purpose that is much bigger than ourselves, I’ve had a different perception of life and what it is supposed to look like. And it’s made just doing life status quo much harder for me. For the first 25-30 years of my life I focused all of my energy on just merely surviving this thing they called life. I was so consumed by the hurt, pain and confusion from all of the injustices bestowed upon me in my early life that I couldn’t see or feel anything past that. I was doing life from a reactive place not a proactive place, from a victim mentality. I didn’t realize that we could create our own lives!

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As soon as I understood that we have the power to create the life we want to live, it was much harder to sit in a job that I detested. From the minute I opened the doors to my organizing business, Simplified Living Solutions, and the phone started ringing off the hook, I’ve battled with staying where I was. Every time I would remind myself how lucky I was to have such a great job with wonderful benefits and I only had 3 1/2 more years to go, those thoughts were quickly met with thoughts of how I want to live my life now, not later. What if I didn’t live long enough to do it after I retired? We’re not promised a tomorrow. I knew with such a strong gut feeling that I didn’t want to leave this life without feeling like I had lived it to its fullest. I didn’t want to take a chance that tomorrow may never come.

I don’t mind working at all, I actually like it. So I knew that if I had to, I could always go back to working a “real job”. But I knew I had to take this leap of faith because I loved the feelings that helping others get organized gave me (in addition to what it gave them). I loved the satisfaction of knowing that I had made a positive difference in someone’s life and I loved encouraging people and reminding them of their greatness. I loved knowing that I was making a positive difference in the world in which I live, rather than merely surviving it. Life wasn’t meant to just survive, we are meant to thrive in it! That’s what I’d like to help more people understand earlier in life than I did so they can get to work living their life to the fullest!

Make Someone Happy

Top 5 Things I Did Before Taking the Leap

Posted on: June 20th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - Leave a comment

As you’ve learned through this blog, it took me a long, long time to follow God’s lead and quit my full time job. By quitting I gave up awesome medical, dental, vision and mental health insurance, my pension that I would have been able to draw in 3 1/2 years and a guaranteed bi-weekly paycheck. Needless to say, I didn’t just run and take that leap of faith without some planning. Here are the top 5 things that I did to prepare:

Top 5 Things to Do

Prayer: I prayed the same prayer over and over for years. Through those prayers I believe that God slowly changed MY attitude and beliefs until I was finally convinced that this was His will and that I could do it. In my opinion, prayer doesn’t have to be perfectly scripted or said in a certain order or way. Prayer for me is just like having a conversation with God, a continual conversation regardless of where I am or what I am doing – driving, cutting the grass, cleaning the house, whatever.

Listen: Of equal importance to prayer is creating a quiet or still time so that you can hear what He has to say. For the greater part of my life, whenever I was in the car, the radio would be blasting the entire time. I had to have it on from the minute I got in the car, until the minute I got out. Not anymore. At least 50% of the time I’m driving, I drive without the radio on. It’s amazing what that quiet time will do for you. Listen to your intuition. Listen to your gut. Listen to your thoughts. Listen to what others say to you. So many times God speaks to us through others. Mostly I listened to the peace within me about the decision to leave.

Save: I saved enough money to pay an entire year’s worth of both my car and house payments. Those are the most important things and those are the things that would affect my credit if they weren’t paid. I realize the importance of impeccable credit and so I do my best to keep my financial affairs in order.

Got my finances in order:  I met with a financial adviser several times. It’s funny, she immediately said I should never leave my job. Five minutes into sharing my story with her of how God had been speaking to me, even she changed her tune. I refinanced my house with a lower interest rate, looked at all of my expenses and “cut the fat” as they say (turned off house phone, changed cable providers in order to drastically cut prices, etc). I made sure all of my debt was paid off other than my car and house.

Be proactive: Not only did I have anything and everything to do with my house and car checked over to be sure nothing was wrong with them, I did the same with me. I refilled as many prescriptions as many times as I could under my great insurance benefits before I left. I had a sleep study done. Had any dental work done that I needed. Went to each of my specialists and my regular doctor to make sure everything was going well with me physically.

By taking care of all of these details so carefully, I think I warded off a lot of problems and was well prepared for whatever or wherever this leap of faith would take me. So far, so good!

I Dare You to Prove it, God!

Posted on: June 16th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - 2 Comments

I’ve made many, many mistakes in my life and so when I began feeling a prompting from God to leave my full time job I wasn’t prepared to just run after that without being 100% sure that was His will. For the better part of my life I’ve been on my own with no one at all to fall back on and so I wasn’t prepared to walk away from every speck of my financial security without being certain this was what He wanted me to do.

There were so, so, so many ways I felt God telling me that this was what He wanted, but I needed something concrete to be sure. Other than the day that I audibly heard God tell me that it didn’t make any earthly sense for Noah to build an arc either (read that story here), this was by far the most obvious, glaring way in which He let me know He meant business and that I better get to work preparing to follow Him.

Now I realize that this story is going to sound like a story out of a story book, or out of a feel-good movie. It’s so far-fetched that it is going to be hard for you to believe this really happened. But I think that’s the entire point I am trying to make with this blog and impending book, that God wants to play an active part in everyone’s lives. I want people that don’t know Him to realize that there really is a God and He’s not just floating out there somewhere. He’s walking through this journey with you and He’s got big, big plans for you if you’ll just let Him in.

Let Him Shine Through You

Okay, enough of that, now on to the story. Once I audibly heard God’s voice reassuring me that although me leaving my job didn’t make any earthly sense, it was what He wanted me to do, I was pretty darn certain that I knew God wanted me to walk away from my job. However, I was scared. I knew I wouldn’t have anyone to fall back on if things blew up in my face and so I needed to know with certainty that He was telling me to do this. I needed something concrete from Him.

I was almost constantly “in conversation” with God about this. On July 1, 2012 my business account only had $56 in it. I remember so clearly saying to God in resignation, “OK God, if this is what you want, I need a very clear sign. Once you give me a clear sign, I’ll do it. If you put $20,000 in my business account before year’s end, I’ll know without a doubt that this is what you want and I will follow.” I remember even laughing out loud as I said this because I knew that if that were to happen, that would be a miracle. I also nervously knew that there was a very great possibility that would happen, and then I would no longer have an excuse not to follow His will for my life.

Can you believe that there was $20,000 in that account by October that year?! (That was exactly one year after He audibly spoke to me!) It was as if God said you gave me until year’s end to get the money in your account but I want to make sure that you understand that this IS my will so I’m putting it in your account earlier! Now let’s get on with this! ~ So I did.

The Day God Smacked Me in the Face

Posted on: January 29th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - Leave a comment

One of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome when I first began to really understand that God was prompting me to leave my full time job was the obvious blaring truth that no one leaves their job after working somewhere 26 years. Especially someone like myself who only had 3 1/2 years to go until I could take early retirement with a full pension.

I wrestled back and forth with God about this for several years. The more obvious it became to me that He really was telling me to leave, the more I would ask Him how he expected me to survive financially if I left. He knew as well as I did that I’ve never had anyone that I could fall back on in my life and so this risk wasn’t one that I could just take and hope for the best.

What is amazing about this entire journey is that He never lost His patience with me as I tried to wrap my head around this concept. He always managed to communicate with me in a way that I could understand His direction. He did this a variety of ways, but mostly through what I call “God Taps” and through other people’s actions or words.

Sue 1987 & Kathy 1988

Sue 1987 & Kathy 1988

One of the most powerful ways He helped me get over the thought that no one quits their job after 26 years, was to use someone else to prove to me that people really do. Kathy started working where I worked about 3 months after I started. We became fast friends and hung out a lot. We were union members and Kathy became very involved in the union leadership. She always knew so much more about the company, the union, the rules, the proper expected behavior, etc. than I could ever hope to know. I always admired her and looked up to her for that reason.

Both of us were “lifers”, just doing our time like a prison sentence until we could retire. The company we worked for was so unbelievably toxic that you could never just go to work and do your job. There was always drama, hurtful and false rumors and management vs union wars. People stayed there because of the great benefits and wages – that was it. I don’t think anyone there actually enjoyed their jobs.

In August 2011, Kathy was preparing to go on vacation for 2 weeks. The day before her vacation started, she was going through the things in her desk – tossing old notes, giving away this or that trinket and getting her stuff organized (you know I’m all about that!). Nothing seemed funny about it at all. We all get the bug to declutter and organize from time to time so I saw it as nothing more than that.

However, the very next day someone told me that Kathy had given her 2 weeks notice and she wasn’t coming back. She hadn’t told a soul she was leaving until after she left. I remember thinking to myself “WHAT?!?! That can’t be possible. Not Kathy! She’s so much smarter than that!”. The minute I heard this I texted her begging her to tell me if what I had heard was true or not. She confirmed that it was all true. She wasn’t coming back. (Kathy now spends her days helping motivate people to lose weight. Check it out.)

This was the day that God smacked me in the face with someone else’s actions and said “Yes. People really do leave. Even after investing 26 years of their lives somewhere. And that is what I’m telling you to do”. From that day forward, the ball was in motion for me to figure out how to make the leap myself. This included meeting with a financial planner, refinancing my house to reduce my interest rate, discontinuing anything that wasn’t necessary (house phone, extra cable channels, etc) and challenging God a few more times to be sure before I actually took the leap in March 2013.

 

Following God One Yes at a Time

Posted on: January 28th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - 2 Comments

When I was 99.7% sure that I was going to take the leap and leave all of my financial security to follow the plan that God had for my life, I read the book “Following God One Yes at a Time” by Connie Cavanaugh because a friend suggested it might be helpful. Boy was she ever right! It was a super easy read and basically was the icing on the cake for my decision. It confirmed everything I had been thinking and feeling. When I finished reading the last page of this book, I emailed my boss to tell him I’d be leaving.

Following God One Yes at a Time

Following God One Yes at a Time

You know how you underline, circle or put asterisks next to meaningful things in books you read? Well I basically marked up every single page of the book. If you’ve been considering taking a big risk in life, or making a big change, I can’t recommend this book highly enough!

In the book, Connie talks about the many feelings that you come up against like guilt, fear, shame, doubt, comparison and defeat when you are considering taking a risk or step of faith. And she talks about how you can beat each of those by saying yes one tiny step at a time. The approach she talks about is exactly how I’ve always lived my life. Whenever I’m trying to encourage someone, I always tell them to “lean into it”, which basically means the same thing. Do one small little thing in that direction and see where that leads you. Then take another small step in that direction and see where it leads you. Open your mind a little bit more to the idea and see where that leads you,

Though it’s difficult for me to pick the one thing in the book that impacted me the most, I’d have to say that this paragraph in a nutshell confirmed what I had finally allowed myself to believe:

God gives each of us His dreams. And one of the biggest miracles is that He wants to use our stories as proof to others that He is real, He is alive, He cares, He wants to be personally involved in our lives, and He wants to use us to change and bring hope to the world we live in. Say yes to His dream for you and expectantly watch for His guidance and provision.