The following article is just wonderful and lovely. It is from Positively positve on stopping asking for permission and just doing it. Being yourself and just going for it.
What if You Stopped Waiting for Permission?:
“Some ask ‘how,’ and some, very few, pull it back further and ask ‘why’… A lot of people don’t ask questions because they know the answer would require substantial disruption, and they don’t want to endure it.” — Jonathan Fields
High-school sweethearts Melissa and A.J. Leon were doing everything right, until it all fell apart four days before their wedding!
Melissa was a much-loved teacher in Spanish Harlem, and A.J. was a rising star in one of the world’s leading consulting firms. But, something was horribly wrong.
A.J. was making a fantastic living, on track for partner. But with every passing day, he was giving up a piece of his soul. He’d become a shell of who he really was. And, Melissa and A.J. were both feeling the pain.
Standing in his Manhattan office, four days before their wedding, A.J. reached a breaking point, a moment that would define the rest of his life. As A.J. shares in this episode of Good Life Project™, he knew,
“If I didn’t leave that job right then and there, I was going to be that dude for the rest of my life.”
He stopped waiting for permission to come alive. And he quit. Then, riddled with guilt, A.J. went home to tell his soon-to-be bride that he’d just blown up their lives.
Melissa embraced him and his decision. For the first time in years, she saw a glimmer of light return to A.J. She was getting the person she’d fallen in love with back. Everything else was figure out-able.
What began as a shock to the system led them both out of their current careers and into an extraordinary life of boots-on-the-ground philanthropy, world travel, entrepreneurship, service, and the opportunity to be with each other every day as they built an extraordinary new company together—Misfit, Inc.
In this episode of Good Life Project™, we dive deep into that moment of reckoning, how they got through it together, what their fears and hopes were, what this unusual, blended-mission company they’re building is all about, and how they’re changing the world one life at a time.
“A good life is not living the life everyone else intended for you. It’s being deliberate in your life; being very, very deliberate in each decision you make.”— A.J. Leon
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiWIMgZOqm0?rel=0]
With gratitude,
Jonathan
Jonathan Fields is a dad, husband, author, speaker, lifestyle innovator, and entrepreneur who produces the acclaimed Good Life Project web show, blogs at JonathanFields.com, and runs book marketing educational venture TribalAuthor.com. His latest book Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel For Brilliance was named #1 personal development book of 2011 by 800-CEO-READ. He has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, FastCompany, Inc., Entrepreneur, USA Today, People, CNBC, CNN.com, PBS Nightly Report, O Magazine, Elle, Vogue, Self, Fitness, Yoga Journal, and thousands of other places that sound cool, but don’t impress his daughter all that much. You can also check him out on Facebook and Twitter.
BUY JONATHAN’S BOOK BELOW:
