I’m not exactly sure when it started, but there came a time in my life when I had a growing sense of purpose. I was supposed to do something, something the world needed from me. I envisioned it as a custom-made pair of shoes to fit me and just me, and they were waiting for me to put them on, but I had no idea what they looked like or where they would take me.

He knew of two schools of thought about choosing a career: “do what you love and the money will follow school” and “go after money in the hope that one day you will be in a position to do what you love school.” . I took the last road. I entered the workforce at whatever job I could get and rose as the winds of change and opportunity presented themselves. I got to a point where I had money, a house, a car, clothes, but I wasn’t happy in my job. I loved the people I worked with, but I was not passionate about the products my company sold. At some point in all my years of work, I had sold myself out for safety. Don’t get me wrong, there are many reasons to justify this decision. After all, I had a child to support and I was single, but a part of me knew that I had put the money before my own joy and peace of mind.

This is a common situation in our society and workforce. It happens with millions of people who work for years in jobs that they really don’t care about, sometimes 60-80 hours a week. This is 2/3 and more of our lives. Few people find satisfaction and fulfillment breaking their backs to fill someone else’s coffers. After working 30 years or more, people are lucky to leave with a pension and a doctor for life, and a gold watch to top it off.

Some people begin to question this approach to work and life, often called a midlife crisis, the culmination of years of dissatisfaction and lack of fulfillment. They begin to question what life is really about and what is their place in it. More and more people are looking for a sense of purpose in their work and their time on earth, feeling the need to leave the world as a better place for having been here. They are looking for their “pair of shoes.”

Security is, of course, a real problem. Especially in times like our current economic crisis, where fear is widespread and rampant. People are losing their jobs, whether or not they are willing to quit. The tough questions become more important in our lives, how am I going to survive? How will I take care of my family and my obligations? It is not just about security, but there is also the fear of the unknown. Walking towards an uncertain future. What will I be called to do?

During the last year that I worked in a company, I was struggling with these questions. It was the most stressful year of my working life up to that point. I was the only single mother in an department where working long hours was the norm and working from home was not an option. I took some creativity and writing classes, searching and waiting for answers. As a result, I realized that I needed to quit my job and take a step down that path of uncertainty. A month later, when I was fired, I realized that I was being called to put aside my vision of safety and take a leap of faith and trust that God would guide me every day, every step. I had asked and prayed for a turn and here it was. You know that old saying, “be careful what you ask for, you may get it.” I can tell you from experience that it rarely looks like what you imagined.

What does it mean to take a leap of faith? In the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, one of the requisites of the knight’s path to the Holy Grail was a “leap of faith.” Indiana reached a great chasm that he could not cross, but when he took a step without knowing where his foot would land, the bridge appeared. In fact, this is how faith works in my life. For years I had been successful in life entirely with my own abilities, skills and talents, but now I was faced with insecurity and the unknown. The leap I was contemplating was wider than my own strength could accomplish. Faith requires believing in something greater than myself, something that can bridge the gap between where I am now and where I must go. Faith has been the bridge.

Applying faith to this situation meant that I needed to trust the voice of intuition within me and keep taking steps forward to do the following. A week after my dismissal, I learned about life coaching. That He felt Right, so I did my research and enrolled in a coaching school. I was told in coaching school to enroll in Toastmasters to improve my public speaking skills. At Toastmasters I increased my confidence and ability to speak in front of people. One thing led to another and another.

It has been over seven years since I was fired from that corporate job and I can tell you now that it is one of the best things that ever happened to me. The call from safety has continued to knock on my door, job offers and marriage proposals have knocked, but over time I have gained clarity that keeping my faith and staying on track is more important. I just couldn’t see giving my shoes to someone else. Every time fear threatened to overwhelm me, faith restored me.

Today, I start each day praying for direction and guidance to continue walking down the path, my path, in my pair of shoes, to make a difference in the world and feel satisfaction and satisfaction in doing so. If you haven’t already, I hope you are looking for and finding your own one-of-a-kind pair of shoes too. The sense of purpose is a path to satisfaction, gratification, and peace of mind. It all starts with an act of faith.