Given the chance, would you take a redo on your career?

Would you leave behind the life you've known since college to venture into an uncertain future? Would you take the chance that you may not find another career you like, or may never make enough money to afford the lifestyle you've become accustomed to?

My friend Debra is doing that. She recently told her employer that she is quitting her job as a public-relations executive on Friday, May 26. On that day, she will leave the only career she has known for the past 15 years.

In golf, they call this a mulligan -- when you take your shot over in hopes of doing better. Life doesn't have such a distinct term, but these do-overs do exist, the second acts we pursue in hopes of a different life. Not all of us are up to that second swing, of course, because this is life, after all, not a game, and after a certain age you worry that if you mess up now you risk landing in a place worse than where you were.

Nevertheless, I'll bet that in just about every career there comes that point where you tell yourself you're ready for something new. But, then, time passes...and you awake to realize another year or 10 has gone by, and nothing has changed. And it isn't that you dislike your job. It's just that your job has come to define who you are, leaving you feeling that maybe you've lost sight of who you wanted to be.

After so many client meetings, and too many presentations, and a life too often molded around her career, that's where Debra found herself. So, she has set out to do what so many of us won't -- start anew.

This is her story. Maybe it will serve as motivation to those dreaming of something different, too.

* * *

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

That's what is taped to Debra's laptop; it's a quote from the late Joseph Campbell, a writer and professor at Sarah Lawrence College. They're the words she lives by these days.

For six months, she debated this decision with friends and family. Some support her; some criticize her for throwing away a job, an income and a lifestyle that would be the envy of so many.

Debra was also torn. Part of her feels a sense of liberation at facing a blank canvas on which to redraw her life. Part of her is overwhelmed at realizing she may no longer have the income to live the life she knows -- including being able to travel and dine and play in the places she and her friends typically do. Part of her is scared at having to leave the person she has come to be.

"I had a meltdown on Sunday night," she told me. "I don't know if I have the confidence to do this, to wake up without a plan, to know that my friendships will change. To worry about the finances and what I can't afford, when I buy now without thinking about it. I'm still living like my paycheck will still be coming in, and I'm not sure when it will hit me that it's not. My boyfriend has been supportive, but I've been financially independent and I worry he might think I see him as a sugar daddy now. Basically, I don't know if I'm going to live up to my expectations."

Massive as those fears are, they haven't muted Debra's motivation. She is set to turn 37, and all she has known since college is grabbing for the next promotion and the bigger paycheck. She has given short shrift to everything else -- including the possibility of having a family. She isn't the daughter, aunt or girlfriend she wants to be. "I'm proud that I have come so far in my career," she says, "but another promotion is not going to impact how I perceive myself. I want to be able to say I'm proud I gave just as much to other pieces of my life, because right now it's completely out of whack."

When she measures her accomplishments against her late father's life, she wonders if he would approve. He would fully support her job accomplishments. But he would look askance at the lack of balance in her life. "He'd come home to be the great family guy, and I can't say that about me," she says.

Debra's larger purpose with this mulligan is to find out who she's supposed to be. Maybe that means she ultimately is a corporate girl; maybe that means she finds some completely new calling. Either way, as she points out, sometimes you need to take a left turn in life to get to where you're going.

And what are her current plans? She has a financial cushion to help her stay afloat for several months (though she fears cutting too deeply into that) while she pursues her dream of working in an upscale clothing boutique. She also wants to make a movie about her dad to share with her family. And she wants to spend more time as a volunteer with an organization helping underprivileged and abused women start small businesses.

"I've always thought about how much money I can make and how that can afford me a better lifestyle," she says. "Now, I've made a decision not to make a decision based on money."

* * *

I know something about this issue personally. I left my job at The Wall Street Journal nearly 10 years ago to pursue my zeal for investing. I went to work for a hedge fund in Texas. And while I enjoyed the research, the trading and the people I worked with, I realized that I love investing from the standpoint of an individual who doesn't have to raise money from strangers or worry about all the back-office chores. Within a year, I was back at the Journal writing about investing instead.

But I also know that not everyone has the courage to follow their dreams. Some are too paralyzed to let go of what they have, others too tethered to their life for immovable reasons.

And even when you do reach for the dream, all doesn't always fall into place. A friend in New York left his job a few years ago to follow his passion for something more meaningful: nursing. And he loved it.

But he had to leave it behind. As he told me, "I left what I loved because I couldn't afford my life." He's back in his former career, looking forward to the day he can afford to pursue his passion again.

Debra knows she could face the same fate; she's prepared for the possibility. For fun, she catered a corporate event a few years ago and realized that while she loves to cook for friends, she hates catering for people she doesn't know.

"Maybe I realize after six months this new life really isn't what I want," she says. "But I will never know unless I take that step to find out."