My Freedom Flight - Taking the Leap of Life from the Corporate Ladder

In matters of the heart, there is an expression that 'love is the leap that won't be denied'.

If we are truly honest with ourselves, many of us wait a lifetime to be inspired to take the leap. Some of us perhaps never do, while others are able to take the leap many times over.

Yes it is January, resolutions abound and goals are being fiercely set for business. Please exhale with relief as this article is not intended to be a self-help guide on the status of your love life, how to get in shape or how to fall in love with your job. If I have in any light-hearted way captured your attention or your curiosity, then please read a bit further. I intend to make it worth your while.

It is in this rare moment I have with you, that I am suggesting you explore such a selfish yet fortuitous thought. 

You just thinking of you. 

While I would never call myself an expert on love life, I will tell you I am an ardent fan and connoisseur of the love of life. I have found a deeper level of meaning behind the power to create the life you desire which I’d like to share with you now. Not because I have all the answers. How boring would this article be if that were the case, and completely unbelievable! More so I want to entice you with the idea of how exciting it could be to not have the answers to life’s big questions. Dare you to find all the pleasure again of finding answers on your terms. But then I am getting slightly ahead of myself and a writer should be able to tell a story worth reading.

Just a few months ago as summer was coming to a conclusion on a classic New York day, I walked out of a building I had walked into countless times before, stepped into a car that took me to LaGuardia and boarded a flight.

Sound familiar? 

It seems our lives and how we carry our responsibilities have thousands of mindless steps that we take. We surround ourselves with people who are in parallel swim lanes. There is comfort in a crowd. Planes, trains and automobiles are literally the machines that carry us through life, yet the pathways are rather circular like the train on its track under the Christmas tree. 

One day it may become quite clear, the tracks are not taking you where you once imagined you wanted to be. In fact, if you owned your truth, when was the last time, if ever, you asked yourself and believed in where you were going?

Well, that at least was the truth for me. It was in this moment that I found the power of a few simple questions.

Who am I? What do I believe? What is my mission for this life?

I love the expression that it is never too late and never too early to be whom you want to be. I kept that saying posted in my home office for years. Yet, reading an inspirational quote as you run out the door to your Executive Platinum autopilot status of life is quite different from taking the leap of change. The courage I had to find before I answered these three questions came into perspective.

Is it possible for someone in their late 40’s with an established and successful career, responsibilities, commitments, layers of identities and expectations, to ask such questions and then act upon them?

Did I have the luxury or the grace of time?

Could I make the changes and allow my dreams to come true?

It was in this moment I realized I had nothing to lose, yet everything to gain and everything to give.

It seems we have become a culture of master experts on “the experience", the value of relationships and long-term returns gained when you focus on the needs of your clients versus the needs of the people or the person who creates the experience.

Yet the only true value or exchange we can ever give a client, a colleague, a loving partner or a friend, is what we give ourselves first. My real jewel of truth from this first half of my journey of life I share with you now to thank you for reading this far.

It is worth repeating:

You can only give anything around you what you give yourself first.

I realized that to truly know 'Who I am', 'What I believe' and 'What is my purpose', I would not be hitting a reset or a delete button. "All of it" mattered and all of it I take with me.

'Starting over' was the language I used to keep me trapped and it wasn’t even correct.

More importantly, I found that it was simple and refreshing to take the generous guidelines and quality measurements I gave for everything else in my life and give them to me.

What a wonderful world I would create first for me.

All the leadership books I read were true. Collaboration is key.

But collaboration must begin inside of me.

I would no longer compartmentalize my life and who I was into easy mindless and often unfulfilled buckets; the Carrie bucket at work, the Carrie bucket in her personal life, the Carrie bucket who loved community projects and giving back, and the Carrie bucket who a couple of times a year steps away and tries out a few secret dreams in adventure trips, health spas or exotic getaways with those I love or share like minds with.

In that moment, I boarded my ’freedom flight’. Literally. In taking the time to reconnect with who I am today, I found the ability to tap into my greatest resource and asset. Me.

This is my next jewel of truth I give to you. The unbelievable resource you have if you take the journey inside to connect with you regardless of the blueprint you took on many years ago still awaits you.

As I look at 2017, I am limitless by the language, the vision and the world I create first inside of me, encoded into my new blueprint for life and use the inspiration as energy to fuel my world around me each day - intentionally.

I take all my love of life with me and I share it with all those who have walked this path with me. This is the culture I create and start with me, and then give to every experience, every client and every loved one around me.

The internal mental exchange I once agonized over like Groundhog Day asking how do I leave a 20 year career path and start my own business was over.

How do I truly be the person I was always intended to be?

I now choose freedom over a false sense of security and in there I can truly create the abundance I seek which exists on all levels.

Now that is a freedom flight I never have to land, and one I would dare you to consider how you might get on board.

So as you tackle this first week of the new year, as you board your flight, take your usual seat on your train or hop into your car on your daily commute, I ask you to just consider this:

What would freedom be for you?

Carrie Moore, inspirational Founder of Carrie Moore International and the dynamic initiative, She Is Excellence.

Carrie empowers individuals to make the right choices and inspires them to be their most authentic selves. Through her experience and guidance combined with her clients, she provides a runway for them to find their freedom path to their next chapter in career and in life.

Carrie consults with organizations in an advisory capacity at a senior level and leads, teaches and writes on culture, diversity, empowerment, talent selection and management architecture to improve your organization's cultural bandwidth and deliver optimum financial results.