It’s always good to have a back up plan in case things go wrong, but sometimes we find ourselves not taking that larger leap into the unknown because it’s just too easy to fall back into familiar patterns. What’s comfortable, what’s secure and what we know best.
In order for growth to occur in any aspect of life, sometimes we need to cut some familiar/close ties and get out of our comfort zone. If we don’t cut them completely then we should be pushing ourselves further away from them so it’s creates more effort to go back rather than to go forward.
Remember Karin of L’escargot Ivre Photography on episode 6 of the Self Starter Podcast? Karin made the decision to let her teaching license slide so it became *that* much harder for her to go back.
After 10 years of teaching, Karin knew that she had to remove this safety net in order to break through and grow her business. By not having the reliability of her teaching job within reach, Karin was forced to work harder and be more creative in building her business and attracting clients. It could be argued that by not doing that, it may have taken longer to reach some of Karin’s self employment goals.
This is not about being reckless but more so about facing fears and creating an opportunity to prove yourself wrong. If you can get to a point where it is more painful to not take that step rather than take it, then you will succeed quicker no matter what the short term results may bring.
Did you make a big decision to remove yourself from familiar comforts to seek something better? Was the action of taking those first steps as bad as what you thought it would be? How did it feel to move away from what was so familiar to you? Let me know in the comments!