5 Reasons Why You Should Take The Leap
I’m positive you’ve heard many different takes on “the leap of faith.”
You might have met a guru preaching the “The Dark Knight Rises” route to leaping.
The one where you can’t have any fallback. The one that says, if you’ve got a safety net, you will never succeed — there’s a famous saying for it too.
Burn the boats!
Captain Hernán Cortés landed ashore to begin his conquest and ordered his men to burn the ships. The only option after that had to be success, because literal death was a fantastic motivator — and so they conquered.
The modern equivalent might be quitting your job to start a business with no savings or a plan, but now your only option is to succeed — and man, if you don’t, there are massive consequences.
Another route for “the leap of faith” is more calculated.
Richard Branson is an advocate and master of this one. Hell, the first plane he ever bought, he got with the contingency that he was able to return it if the business didn’t work out.
He took a leap of faith; he started an airline when the competition had a monopoly, and yet it wasn’t all in — it was a calculated move.
Capping the risks and then going for it, not bad. Not bad at all.
And yet there’s another way to take “the leap of faith” — the risk-averse way.
The way where you’re not putting anything you already have on the line, you’re putting the future potential on the line.
An example:
You’ve got plenty of savings, investments, and a high paying job; you’re well off, but you quit your job because you want to leap into a traveler’s lifestyle.
You’re not risking anything except future employment income and a potential mistake — you keep the investments, most of the savings, and your years of experience.
And yet, it’s still a leap of faith.
This article isn’t about which one is better.
If someone’s telling you one’s better than the other, the disclaimer should always be “in my experience.”
Very few people know you as well as you know yourself, so your risk tolerance is up to you.
The thing that is a tragedy, though, is not taking the leap at all.
Once again, this article isn’t telling you which leap is better; this article is about why you absolutely should take the chance.
And there are more than a few good reasons why you should.
1. You will never regret taking the leap.
But you’ll always regret not taking it.
The whole concept of regret is about knowing you need to act, but not taking action. Karen Nimmo wrote a fantastic article earlier this year, where she interviews 50 people between the ages of 35 and 60; she asked them about there regrets.
- Spending too much time worrying.
- Not having enough adventures.
- Staying too long in bad relationships.
- Not changing paths out of fear of risk.
The number of regrets that point to a lack of action, a lack of pursuing the dream, are astounding.
Here’s an example. You never regret asking that special someone on a date and being rejected, but you always regret not asking at all.
Take the leap.
2. Failure isn’t that bad.
Remember when all your worries boiled down to some inconsequential test or speech in highschool — would your life have changed if you failed it?
Regardless of what happens in your endeavors — the sun will rise tomorrow.
Yes, failure sucks, and it has massive consequences sometimes, but most of us aren’t dealing with life or death situations. Most of us can bounce back from failure even stronger than before.
As we can deduct from the historian Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens: Fear of failure, or fear in general, is a prehistoric trait that thousands of years of evolution instilled in us so we could survive.
Failure 40,000 years ago meant being eaten, failure today means you’ll have to try again — it isn’t that bad, take the leap.
3. The struggle is only mental.
Most of the time, the leap isn’t physical; the only thing in the way is the mental struggle; the only thing in your way is the resistance of the mind.
But this resistance again is only mental, and the reality is that we can take action at any time. Whenever we say, “I’m ready,” it’s time to move.
The thing is, we’re always ready.
Steven Pressfield shares this reality in his book, The War of Art.
Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second we can turn the tables on Resistance.
Once we can realize what the reality is, once we truly understand that it’s only mental, why shouldn’t we make a move?
This isn’t a real cliff, the laws of physics don’t apply — you can soar to the stars if you want.
So do just that — take the leap.
4. You’ll always have help.
Nobody stops for the guy broken down on the road waving for help; everyone wants to help the guy broken down on pushing their own car.
No matter how much risk you think is involved in taking a chance, once you have, people are there to catch you, everyone wants to help you — you’re not alone.
You’ve heard this quote many times before.
Once you make a decision, the Universe conspires to make it happen. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The people in the universe more so, I’d say — and all it takes to get that help is to leap.
And if you’re going to get the help, that’s one more reason to go for it.
Take the leap.
5. There’s more risk in not taking the leap.
The ultimate risk is living your life without achieving your aspirations.
Here’s a cliche:
A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for — John A. Shedd
I like to take it a step further in the realm of reality.
A ship at harbor is even riskier; what a lousy investment, right? This thing is going to sit here, not bring any value, not carry out its purpose — leaving it there is the worst thing we can do.
If you can find the success you’re looking for without changing where you stand, you’re in the right place — for the rest of us, staying docked at the port is the most significant risk.
Staying put and hoping for the best, not going after the job, the business, the relationship, the goal — that’s where we risk our dreams.
It’s just a matter of perspective. Be the boat that ventures out, it’s the safest bet you can make — take the leap.
The leap looks different to everyone, sometimes it’s in with both feet, sometimes it’s with a safety rope, and sometimes it’s with a military-grade parachute — what it looks like isn’t the issue.
Going for it, putting something on the line for your dreams — that’s what matters.
There will be lots of failures, but it won’t be so bad.
You’ll always have support, and you’ll become more confident in yourself regardless of the outcome.
And when you’re a much older person looking in the mirror, you’ll smile at a life well-lived and a soul with no trace of regrets — all because you took the leap.
Best of luck,
Sah
