Ciao!

Fab

leap of faith or not leap of faith??

It doesn’t matter because in the end, all the matter depends on which kind of entrepreneurial aptitude is dominant!!

If you feel like, take this test:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224141?cam=Dev&ctp=Carousel&cdt=31&cdn=224141

All the best!

Fab

Pffft, think nothing of it….I love a good conversation with opposing points of view 🙂 Takes a lot for me to be offended.

I think some of it might have to do with a difference in how faith is perceived on a personal level. I mentioned on Twitter that I’m not a religious person, so for me when I think of faith, I think of the “blind faith” practiced by the religious.

In one of your statements above you had said that stepping out of an airplane naked and without a parachute was the act of someone stupid, not the act of someone with faith. The problem is that, to the person doing the jumping, they aren’t stupid; they have faith that something miraculous is going to happen. To an outside viewer, what they are doing is stupid, but to them it’s all about conviction.

Respectfully (no disrespect intended to those who believe in God/Jesus/etc.), the same could be said about people who believe in a magical entity that we can neither see nor touch or hear or ever interact with. Believing in something that has no tangible evidence is viewed by most within the scientific community as being “stupid”, because there’s no evidence to support that belief. But it doesn’t matter to religious people because they have blind faith.

So I think that’s maybe where we had a difference…I was lumping all types of faith in with “blind faith”, while for you there is a difference between blind faith and normal faith. I totally get what you were saying now 🙂

as far as:

“But according to your last comment, the only way I could EVER make a “true” leap of faith would be if I had no skills, I was stupid, I had no experience, I was untrainable, and broke.

Come on, folks! Seriously.”

My PS was just an extreme example to make you understand that

if you have had boring jobs, your mind would not have devoleped in such a creative way to make up a career as a professiona hobo!!

It’s a basic concept of cognitive psychology!!

( shop assistants aren’t so stupid, untrainable and broke!!!!
Come on, Nora!! Seriously. )

Apart from that, I already pointed out an effective example of people who really make leap of faith:

“People who make true leaps of faith are those people who risk all their assets ( financial, intellectual and emotional ) on ventures in which they believe in with all their hearts and if something goes very bad, they don’t have any good other option like yours, they must start from scratch again!!

You could say: Why do they risk so much?

Sometimes life puts people under strong pressure and there is only one option to pursue, otherwise you lose!! And in those cases, you must play it at any cost, whatever it takes!!”

A Final Note:

some months ago ( I had just discovered your interesting website ) I sent you an email in which I made you my sincere congratulations for your original and innovative lifestyle ( I also gave you a boost for a particular project ) and you answered that it was just the result of the fact that you have put passion in each day of your life!!

I liked very, very much your response because for what I’ve understood about you ( I don’t know you! ) this was the key factor that allowed you to make a living as a professional hobo!!

Again, not a leap of faith!!

But a personal feature that is far, far more important than any kind of strong or light leap of faith!!

“Man is only great when he acts from passion” by Benjamin Disraeli

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/benjamindi130014.html

All the best!

Fab

Now a leap is something that is more than just a step. Day to day is a step. Life changing quit your job, leave your faimly, travel with a romantic partner (for me at least this one), is certainly a leap. She skipped all the little steps in between to do it. I do think what Nora did by deciding that she wanted to change her life was a leap.

The faith was that in what God (or insert whatever you beleive in) has given her the experience and will give oppertunities to do what she needs to do to make it work. Even if that faith was in only herself. Having confidence in yourself IS having faith in your self.

Also, I think in life we take little steps and sometimes big steps, some times leaps, and sometimes plummets. Sometimes they work and sometimes they do not. How big these “steps” are depend on our own perception. Everyone will think differently how big their leap is, but can never fully appreciate anyone elses because you will never have the same understanding of anyone elses self as that person.

Some people make leaps because they do not understand the risks or have no other choice. Some people see the more of risks, understand and still take that leap (like Nora). I think it is braver to jump in knowing the pit is full of snakes instead of jumping in and realizing their are snakes (is that analagy Indiana Jones enough?). Ignorance is not faith.

When people start thinking they need to make bigger and bigger leaps because they have done that before or that it was not a big leap is often when they are tripped by something that is right in front of their face, before they ever take off. Again, this is ignorance not faith.

I’m noticing that the word “faith” – which commonly holds religious connotations – does seem to carry with it some high emotions and strong convictions. As only “faith” should!

Maybe the disconnect for me in this discussion is between my actually MAKING THE DECISION to travel full-time, and then FINDING A WAY to make it work. I feel like you and Fab are combining these two very separate moments in time, and in a sense discrediting the faith I needed to sell everything I owned without any clue what the rest of my life would look like, and risking everything from my career to my social life and even family relations to pull it off.

“The Professional Hobo” was non-existent for me when I decided to travel full-time – as was travel writing, location independent careers, and every single aspect of this career of which I was completely and totally unknowledgeable. Truth be told, I pretty much accidentally fell into this career. It wasn’t a plan – or even a back-up plan. Faith, perhaps, led me to it.

In fact, my first idea of how I’d make my travels last was to train with Outward Bound as an outdoor education instructor in Costa Rica! Really, I was just shooting in the dark…..with the FAITH that something would happen to make my life-long dream of full-time travel work.

What I DO have that Fab pointed out, are enough complimentary skills to figure something out. I had the FAITH that I’d land on my feet with the skills I’d built up over 30 years, regardless of not having any idea how I’d do it.
If that dilutes my ability to act on faith, then so be it.

Is there a chance that we’re mixing up “faith” with “blind faith”?

I can see your point of view 🙂 You feel that the mental act of leaping was the “faith” part. And maybe, for you, it was.

But in regards to the plane analogy… (in my mind) if a naked person jumps out of a plane and actually BELIEVES that he will be able to fly…because he has absolute and unequivocal faith in his diety…it’s not stupid, at least not from his point of view, because he has faith. That’s why it’s called a leap of faith…he has faith that he will fly, that he won’t die, that he won’t splat like a pancake on the ground.

That’s faith. It’s believing in something that has absolutely no tangible or viable reason for “being”. Something that cannot be quantified or identified, scientifically or otherwise. It can’t exist, it can’t be real…but because you believe in it, it simply is.

But making the jump with a parachute and a backup plan…that’s rational thinking. It’s not really faith (in my book). It’s a calculated decision based on planning and strategic thinking. The person doing the jumping isn’t putting his hopes and dreams on a “maybe” or a “might be”. He is doing everything in his power to use protection to ensure he doesn’t splat on the ground. In his case, it’s less about faith and more about calculated risk assessment, which is a valuable real-life and business skill.

I hope you don’t think I’m dissing you 🙂 I love your blog and your writing, I just am providing an alternative point of view.

I do think, however, that yes, in regards to your last comment on this last reply, a true leap of faith is only possible when you believe in something so much that you are willing to do things that other people say are absolutely stupid…like jumping out of an airplane without a ‘chute….and KNOWING in your heart that god/fate/destiny/whatever will come to your aide and make it all better. That’s what faith is.

Having a game plan, even if it’s only so much as knowing that you have X, Y and Z skills that you can put to use in your next endeavor, isn’t the same thing, in my opinion.

When you went into your new career as a professional hobo/lip/digital nomad, you knew that you had skills. You had a rough idea of what you were capable of, even if you had never done the task ahead. You might not have known exactly what route you would take, but you at least had a rough idea of “This is what I can do, here are some options, let’s see what works”.

In my mind, that’s not faith. That’s intelligent reasoning. It’s you being a smart, intelligent, rational human being who laid out the options and said “This is what I can do” and you ran with it. As far as butterflies in the stomach go…I think we all suffer from that any time we go into a new venture. Not because it’s an impossible venture, but just because we are human…and part of being human is fearing change, fearing getting out of our comfort zone, and being fearful about the “what ifs”.

But no…you certainly didn’t jump out of a plane naked, nor did you just one day wake up and say “You know what…I don’t have any skills, any money, and no experience…but I BELIEVE that I’m going to become a millionaire tomorrow, because I have faith that it’s my destiny!”

Since we’re deep into the philosophy of it all using myself as an example, here are a few points to consider:

@T.W. – I’m sorry, but jumping out of plane without a parachute isn’t a leap of faith. It’s stupid.
I don’t believe a leap of faith has to be extreme or life-threatening to be a leap of faith.

Have you ever heard the story (I’ll get the details of it wrong, but here’s the gist) about the man who waited for the hand of God to save him? He sat in a boat in the middle of the ocean, no food, no water, but lots of faith – waiting for the hand of God to save him.

He drifted by an island, with an oasis, coconuts, and fresh water. He could have stopped there and nourished himself, but instead he drifted away, trusting that the hand of God would save him.

He found a kit floating in the water with dry flares that he could fire for rescue. But he let it float away, trusting in the hand of God.

A helicopter came to rescue him. He refused rescue, safe in the faith that the hand of God would save him.

Eventually, he died of exposure in that boat. At the pearly gates, he deplored God. “Why didn’t you save me?”

“I tried to,” said God. “I sent you an island, I sent you flares, and I sent you a helicopter, but you refused.”

The hand of God can take many forms.
Let’s try to live in the real world. Faith can be pragmatic.

@Fab – Again, I can’t help but object.
You said: “In your case, to make a living as a professional hobo didn’t imply believing in something intangible because you could work as a travel writer, English teacher for foreign students ( online and offline), jack of all trades or receptionist for bed and breakfast, you could even set up a website of financial planning, etc.., all these examples weren’t’t intangible means to get by for a smart girl like you, in fact you succeeded!!”

First of all, when I decided to travel full-time, I didn’t know how I’d make a living. Yes, I had skills and experience which eventually parlayed into my Professional Hobo career. But don’t we all have some shred of skills or experience? Just because it was possible for me to make money a few different ways didn’t mean it was a sure thing.

But according to your last comment, the only way I could EVER make a “true” leap of faith would be if I had no skills, I was stupid, I had no experience, I was untrainable, and broke.

Come on, folks! Seriously.