How do you know if you’re ready to make “The Leap”?

I’m getting asked more and more how I’ve made such huge transformations in my life. This helps explain it.

In the past few years, I’ve closed down the design agency I ran for a decade, sold, gave away or stored everything we owned, moved to Europe carrying a suitcase, and I’m going all pistons firing into a career as a writer.

The craziest part? It doesn’t even seem like such a big deal to me. In many ways, it wasn’t me who decided all of this, I’m just following what I know needs to happen.

A friend pointed me a podcast about people who make Big Changes in their lives. Have a listen to The Leap: Episode 4: The Improbable Transformation of a Punk Pioneer. Here’s an excerpt:

“So now that I’m working on this podcast about people who make dramatic changes, I’m starting to realize something about them. Many people who leap are not agonizers. They don’t spend a lot of time considering the other hand, they’re not crippled by regrets. And I just don’t get that because I’m a regretter and for me there is always another hand to worry over, which is probably why I’ve never played guitar in a genre-breaking band or became a tech executive.
— Judy Campbell of The Leap

I think I’m safe to sum it up as a “gut feeling.” It’s much more a decision of the heart over one of the mind. It’s not necessarily rational (I could have kept my agency bouncing along) and it might seem crazy to others (“Wait, you’re moving to Europe with a suitcase?”) and downright insane to those who don’t understand (“A writer? Like, books?”).

But I smile and say, “Yes, that’s exactly it.”

I don’t regret, I don’t fret, I don’t look back. There’s now and there’s what comes next.

To me, it’s as simple and as natural as gravity or physics. Water will find (or create) a crack and seep through. It’s just a matter of persistence and patience.

Add a touch, OK, a big touch, of passion and that’s about it. When you have those three (Passion, Persistence, Passion), you don’t need rational or decision trees or much of anything else. You just know.

If you think you might not have all three, that’s OK. You can grow them. It’s a simple question you answer and then you’ll know:

Where do you naturally gravitate?