Leap: The Courage to Pursue Purpose
Oct 23, 2026
☩ ☩ ☩
An Existential Excavation
☩ ☩ ☩
But if I have not ventured at all—who then helps me?
— Søren Kierkegaard
If you are like most people, you think about making significant changes to your life (a leap).
If you are completely satisfied with your life, you are in the minority. Bless you: you may skip the rest of this essay and return if you later become restless.
If you are in the majority of people who ponder the leap into a different way of life, know that your dissatisfaction is normal; a common part of being human.
We are hardwired to seek new horizons as a way to discover resources and opportunities, but a distinction must be made. Seeking novelty (“I need a change”) can be markedly different from an intentional pursuit of purpose (“I’m not fulfilling my potential”). The former may be satiated by a weekend away. The latter necessitates a change in vision, direction and goal.
The problem is that we tend toward risk management: manageable uncertainty is more comfortable than an encounter with the unknown. But when we play it safe, we risk settling for a different veneer on the same old situation. When the shine of novelty wears off, we are again dissatisfied and the cycle begins anew.
Kierkegaard (the original "leap of faith" guy) asked a great question: if you refuse to leap—into a new job, a new city, a new relationship... a new way of life—who can help you?
The longer I live, the clearer it becomes that no one is coming to save you.
In the act of saving yourself, it is frequently necessary to make big, scary changes.
What makes this difficult is the fact that we can never be certain that a big move is the right one. This lack of certainty pulls us strongly out of the realm of safe comfort and is met with an immediate equal and opposite reaction:
“Too scary.”
So we procrastinate and overthink, and “wait for the right time,” all of which are mental feints designed to mitigate fear of the unknown, of failure.
Small, safe distractions can feel like meaningful change in the short term, but eventually lead to a lament I have heard repeatedly in counseling: “I still feel empty.”
What we can discern is that staying put—if it means staying stuck—is definitely not in our best interests.
We do our due diligence, we take careful stock of where we are and where we want to be: who we want to be.
That last question—who we want to be—dictates much of the rest of the decision. Careful consideration of a deeply satisfying new life situation takes into account the fact that life is not conducted in a vacuum.
To evolve into the person we envision may require additional resources. To acquire those resources, we may have to change the level of our education, our location, the people with whom we associate, the way we show up in the world.
These decisions are not random; they are made in service of the primary goal, the meaning we have assigned to our existence at this point in time: our purpose.
We then estimate—usually with some trepidation—the trajectory that will take us to this new place.
To this point, our effort has been a purely mental exercise.
Now we must act.
This is the "leap of faith" that accompanies all major life changes. It is rare that we can know for sure when everything is "right."
"Is this the right time?"
"Is this the right person?"
"Am I making the right move?"
To make matters worse, there is another question beneath all of this:
"Am I ready?"
The answer to all but the last question is unknown; you won't know for sure until you try.
The answer to the last question is easy: Nope—you will never be completely ready.
There is no perfect time, no perfect person, no perfect job.
And after all, things change no matter how carefully you plan.
You can never insulate yourself from every risk, plan for every contingency, see every possibility.
But in all this uncertainty, two things are reliably true:
First: If you spend a considerable amount of time thinking about a change, you are probably ready enough. And staying stuck has consequences that can be worse than the alternative, however unknown and frightening.
Second: You may not be one for "playing it safe," for staying in the same situation and doing the same thing for the totality of your existence. If you deny yourself the adventure of life, you risk one day looking back at your life with regret.
Know this: I believe in you.
I know you can find your way through whatever challenges may arise as you reinvent your life, yourself.
This is not empty encouragement: I have seen the results of carefully considered change in thousands of students, clients, and patients. If they can do it—scared and unsure—and be oh-so-glad on the other side, you can too.
I know I have.
Now go and leap.
Read my interview with Dr. Mehmet Yildiz here.
My novel, The Calling is available now in print and as an eBook.
Click here to subscribe to SHADOW & STAR, my free weekly newsletter.
To learn more about how to use these concepts or to inquire about working with me, visit the Jeff W Welsh website, subscribe to my Substack or Medium accounts or the Hardcore Happiness Article page, and follow my Instagram account for regular insights.
Borderland Radio is LIVE every Thursday night at 8 PM US Pacific Time - call in and be a part of the show!
- JWW
Subscribe to the HARDCORE HAPPINESS blog
Never miss a post, and get goodies meant only for our community!
We will never sell your info. Ever. EVER!
