Does your job make you happy? It’s a simple question, but I realize not such an easy answer. Let me rephrase the question; are you doing something that when you wake up in the morning, you’re excited to go and do? Yes, no?? Here’s a scarier question, if the answer was no, why are you still doing that thing that you obviously don’t like?

I was faced with this question recently, and it was by far, one of the most difficult questions I believe I’ve faced in my entire life.

Things had changed pretty drastically for me in recent months and I had come to the hard realization that I wasn’t passionate about what I was doing for work any longer. I was of course, still showing up and doing my job but I was basically checking in and checking out without really investing myself too deeply into what I was doing. This bothered me to no end. I was spending hours, days, weeks, months of my life just going through the motions and wasting my time doing something that I knew I no longer loved.

When I imagined my life I always imagined myself doing something special, something I could be proud of, something that I was passionate about. I imagined, like so many successful people that I looked up to, that I would have a great purpose to my life and that I would be following that dream. I looked at my life now and sadly realized that I was not living up to that standard.

It was then that I knew I needed to start making a change, but the hard part was I couldn’t just leave. With my cushy salary, my flexible work-life balance, and my comfortable lifestyle I was essentially trapped in the life I had created for myself.

Yet the longer I stayed the more it began to eat at me.

Why are we placed on this earth?

Are we really born to grind for our entire lives just to retire exhausted, and then do nothing? Is this really what life is all about?

Shouldn’t we be doing something that, at the very least, makes us happy and fulfilled? I mean sure everyone has to work, but if we are going to invest the majority of our lives into doing something, then shouldn’t that something, be something amazing?

I pondered these questions at great length until I finally came to an impasse. I realized that I had unwittingly made a trade-off; I was in essence, exchanging the greatest years of my life doing something I hated, for the benefit of a low middle-class lifestyle. My adequate lifestyle was so important me that I was actually willing to sacrifice my dreams in exchange for it. And the sad reality was that I was neither rich in life or in finances and if I stayed where I was, then I was never going to be either. I was literally living the definition of insanity, doing the same thing every day and expecting a different result. No wonder I wasn’t happy…

This was it, this was when I committed myself to making a change. Damn my fears, damn the risks and dam my safety blanket, it was time to took a leap of faith.

Making a leap of faith

Ironically when I decided on my 12 goals back in January I had actually scheduled myself to have September be the month I would attempt to start a business. Little did I know then that this business wouldn’t be a small side project or entrepreneurial experiment, that this would be the month that I fully stepped out on my own and started a business as my career.

Over the last 8 months, I have invested countless hours into building the Scale My Life brand. I’ve always loved marketing and this was an amazing opportunity to experiment and learn as I went. It was this fun and virtually care free environment that allowed me to really practice and develop out my skills in social media and blogging. It’s with these new skills and my passion for working with entrepreneurs to help them share their story that I’d like to announce my decision to launch my own online and social media marketing company.

I won’t lie, the prospect of this scares the living hell out of me. I know that for all I’ve learned so far, there’s a lot I still have left to learn, but I think at a certain point you just have to put aside the fear of the unknown and just believe in yourself. Believe that you’ll hustle to make it work and that no one really knows all the answers, but you can commit to trying to find them.

I don’t know where this leap of faith will take me, I don’t know how much it’ll cost me, but I do know I’m happier now then I’ve been in a very long time. I have control over my life which offers me a great sense of excitement and optimism.

I may be unemployed right now but after this month, one way or another I’m committed to becoming self-employed and truly self-sufficient.