Leaps of Faith
*Photo by Jon Taylor
Leaps of Faith
Or if you don’t try, it’ll never happen
Leaps of faith. Daunting, frightening, necessary. Ultimately, the only way to reach our goals. So as my New Year’s present to you, here are three great examples of folks who took major leaps of faith and it paid off. On a recent trip to London, I encountered two friends from my past who had made dramatic changes in their lives, each requiring a great deal of bravery and a big leap of faith. My friend Ricardo Spriggs, loads of talent, but not a huge resume at the beginning of this story, took a big chance and boy did it pay off! Another friend, Leanne Marshall, a super fierce survivor, found she needed a new direction to get herself healthy and happy, and just a year later is truly surviving and thriving. To do this, she had to let go of what she knew, and try something else.
Ricardo; had done some successful out of the country (he’s UK based) contracts with a company that appreciated him, and gave him a lot of interesting opportunities to see the world and perform, but ultimately repeating that contract would not get him closer to his real goal of performing on the West End. As he was in final callbacks for a dream show in London, he was supposed to leave and do another contract with the first company. He had a really good rapport with them and was able to ask for some time to follow through those callbacks, (side note: don’t leave ripples in a well you’ve drunk from!) and a few months later, got his dream job performing in Aladdin on the West End. He’s been there for three years and couldn’t be happier. But none of it would have happened had he not taken the risk and stuck around to see it through.
Leanne’s leap of faith tale starts about a year ago. An injury had sidelined her entirely from dancing, and while she has this amazing voice, she wasn’t really getting seen for “singer” roles. After this injury had got her to the point where she wasn’t even able to walk, she was down because of not being able to do what she loved to do, and all the things that go along with being a dancer out of commission. So finally she decided that in order to set herself up again to succeed, she actually had to quit. Quit auditioning, quit a struggle that wasn’t working, and potentially harming her body even more. A year later, she has turned it all around, is personal training, and honestly, should be winning bodybuilding competitions because her most recent photos are STUNNING!!! She went from not being able to walk, to being Sports Illustrated/Iron Man Cover Girl worthy. But in order to get to that, she had to give up what she knew and was “comfortable with” to get where she is. I’ve never seen her happier.
See, my two friends took a big chance, maybe even one that scared them at the time, and it paid off, big! The cost of doing the same thing, that was ultimately not right for them, was too big, so they made a change. They are no different from you or I. All they did was take a chance.
And one more story: a young man working as a luggage handler at Heathrow airport who wrote songs and followed this one band, worked up the guts to say hello and share his talent (not just writing songs, but singing them with a huge range). Timing is everything, and they had just lost their lead singer. Now this man couldn’t be anything other than what he was, which was a unique talent, but because he worked up the courage to talk to the band, the world was given…Freddie Mercury, and Queen. Go see Bohemian Rhapsody. It will inspire you, I promise.
So on my anniversary of moving to New York, here’s my New Year’s wish for all of us: Don’t stay where you are comfortable, doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a better result. You already know that doesn’t work. Instead, do that thing inside your heart that says “Go on, try it this way.” Do that. Do it 100%. Because the thing about leaps of faith is that it takes both feet to do it. Halfway won’t work. Be brave, be bold, be Bulletproof. Happy New Year. Love, Bette.
