isn’t right.’” She then realized that life no longer matched her vision for it.
D) Up until that point, Lech had followed traditional measures of success. After graduating
with a degree in business and accounting, she joined a public accounting firm, married, bought a
house, put lots of stuff in it, and had a baby. “I did what everybody else thought looked
successful,” she says. Leah easily could have fallen into a trap of feeling content; instead, her
energy sparked a period of experimentation and renewal.
E) Feeling the need to change. Leah started playing with future possibilities by exploring her
interest and developing new capabilities. First trying physical exercise and dieting, she lost some
weight and discovered an inner strength. “I felt powerful because I broke through my own
limitations,” she recalls.
F) However, it was another interest that led Leah to radically reinvent herself. “I remember
sitting on a bench with my aunt at a yoga studio,” she said, “and having a moment of clarity right
then and there. Yoga is saving my life. Yoga is waking me up. I ‘m not happy and I want to
change and I’m done with this.” In that moment of clarity Leah made an important leap,
conquering her inner resistance to change and making a firm commitment to take bigger steps.
G) Creating the future you want is a lot easier if you are ready to exploit the opportunities
that come your way. When Leah made the commitment to change, she primed herself to new
opportunities she may otherwise have overlooked. She recalls
H) One day a man I worked with, Ryan, who had his office next to mine, said, “Leah, let’s go
look at this space on Queen Anne.” He knew my love for yoga and had seen a space close to
where he lived that he thought might be good to serve as a yoga studio. As soon as I saw the
location, I knew this was it. Of course I was scared, yet I had this strong sense of “I have to do
this.” Only a few months later Leah opened her first yoga studio, but success was not instant.
I) Creating the future takes time. That’s why leaders continue to manage the present while
building toward the big changes of the future. When it’s time to make the leap, they take action
and immediately drop what’s no longer serving their purpose. Initially Leah stayed with her
accounting job while starting up the yoga studio to make it all work.
J) Soon after, she knew she had to make a bold move to fully commit to her new future.
Within two years, Leah shed the safety of her accounting job and made the switch complete. Such
drastic change is not easy.
K) Steering through change and facing obstacles brings us face to face with our fears. Leah
reflects on one incident that triggered her fears, when her investors threatened to shut her down: “I
was probably up against the most fear I’ve ever had,” she says. “I had spent two years cultivating
this community, and it had become successful very fast, but within six months I was facing the
prospect of losing it all.”
L) She connected with her sense of purpose and dug deep, cultivating a tremendous sense of
strength. “I was feeling so intentional and strong that I wasn’t going to let fear just take over. I
was thinking, ‘OK, guys, if you want to try to shut me down, shut me down.’ And I knew it was a
negotiation scheme, so I was able to say to myself, ‘This is not real.’” By naming her fears and
facing them head-on, Leah gained confidence. For most of us, letting go of the safety and security
of the past gives us great fear. Calling out our fears explicitly, as Leah did, can help us act
decisively.
M) The cycle of renewal never ends. Leah’s growth spurred her to open her second studio --
and it wasn’t for the money