I was noodling on the idea of enrolling in Martha Beck’s life coach training.  This wasn’t just partaking in a self improvement class.  This was career changing, snow globe escaping consideration.  On frequent flier miles and a knee jerk, I signed up for her Steering by Starlight seminar held in Phoenix last May.  The idea was to experience her energy in person and let my intuition decide.

One morning prior to this trip, I asked the Universe to give me some clues. 
Ask and ye shall receive.

Journal entry:  April 30, 2008
Holy cow!  I just listened to a recording of Martha coaching and her client might as well have been me.  Paraphrased quote from Martha:  “Can I see that my ‘job’ and being in that state of perpetual stress will kill me?   That is not making a living… it’s making a dying.”

The closer the Phoenix trip gets, the more unspoken questions are just “answered.”  The answer appears in a magazine, book, MP3, e-mail, through a friend… or from that small voice… like magic.  Listening to Martha coach brought me to tears.  Not only because she addressed head-on some of my fears, but because it sounds like freedom.

Journal entry:  May 2, 2008
* Turned on the radio and Let It Fade was playing:  “Let this old life crumble, let it fade…”

* Picked up The Joy Diet and opened to the chapter on “Risks.”  The rule is that the risk has to scare the pants off of you.

*Picked up my coffee cup and this was staring at me:  “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

* E-mail popped up with this subject line:  “It’s Time to Break Free.”  The content meant nothing… but the subject line freaked me out.

* Quote on calendar page for the day:  “To some will come a time when change itself is beauty, if not heaven.”  – Edwin Arlington Robinson

* At work:  We were working through a settlement with a tough customer.  Last week, in a bit of exasperation I blurted:  “If we ever get this done, I’m quitting while I’m ahead.”  Today, they paid us an unsolicited lump sum that cleared their entire past due balance.  Their explanation is that they are going through a system upgrade and wanted to finalize their balance?  Most customers will use this as a reason to NOT pay.  Maybe I do need to quit while I’m ahead?

Journal entry:  May 7, 2008
Clergy column in our church messenger had this Bob Dylan quote:  “You are either busy being born or busy dying.”

Journal entry:  May 11, 2008
The song that kicked off our Sunday worship service was entitled “Break Free.”

Journal entry:  May 13, 2008
Received an unrelated e-mail from a friend and this was at the bottom:

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”  
-  Matthew 6:34

I must have stopped journaling at this point… but the magic hasn’t stopped. 

The trip to Phoenix brought about dreams that resolved and stopped recurring dreams I’ve had since college.  Beautiful and peaceful dreams.

I enrolled in coach training.  How could I not?  The freakishly synchronistic encounters and events only enhanced my faith that there is a higher power at work in our lives.  And that higher power was talking to me loud and clear… especially when I least expected to hear from it… and in my sleep.

By October, the questions revolved around not if, but when, I wanted to become a full time coach.   

• Should I resign from my day job in December and hit the ground running with the New Year? 
• Or wait until the spring after I was eligible for certification and had three more weeks of paid vacation in the hopper? 
• Was it even wise to leave my steady job when the economy was tanking?

I was pondering all of this while picking up some lunch-to-go and saw the new “Skirt” magazine on the racks.  Jokingly, and to divert attention away from my internal bantering, I asked:  “OK, Skirt, what do you have to say?  Wait for spring or not?”

Here’s what the cover said:

“Have you bloomed lately? …  Don’t wait for spring to shed the comforter of inertia that keeps you asleep in the bud, the permafrost of habit that keeps you stuck in a no-growth zone.  Stop wishing – start working. Quit waiting – start groundbreaking.  What’s the story you’re waiting to be, the Super Power you’ve been hiding, the seed you haven’t watered, the calling you’ve put on hold, the forgiveness you’ve withheld, the next step you haven’t taken?  There’s a Wild Flower in you waiting to blossom… A stargazer lily with sky-high dreams.”

I kid you not.  I almost dropped my salad in the parking lot.

Anyone not familiar with Martha Beck’s Steering by Starlight should know that the book is all about finding your path to your own North Star and following it through the eyes of your inner Stargazer.

I did not wait for spring.   And then the message of it all became downright freaky.

Two weeks after I resigned from that “safe” job, the “stable” company imploded.  It is possible that I would still be employed, collecting money, dealing with liquidation and listening to bankruptcy lawyers.  But it would be the antithesis of authentic and certainly not joy filled. 

Your intuition can tell you when it’s time to change.  Synchronicities and God moments are everywhere if you are open to seeing them.  Freedom is having the ability to change on your own terms even when it’s hard.

The real bonus lesson: 
When Your Essential Self Speaks… Consider She Knows Something You Don’t

Ask the Universe, watch for the synchronicities and trust. 
I’d love to hear about your magic.