Taking the Leap: Landing Hard and Living to Tell About It

Five years ago I took the big leap. I quit my full-time job with benefits to launch my business. I leapt with hardly any savings and no part-time transition job. It gets worse. The day after I gave notice at my job, my then fiancé broke up with me. When he moved out, I felt the added burden of paying all the apartment rent on my own. My landing couldn’t have been harder.

Ironically, I now help clients make smooth transitions when they’re ready to launch their businesses, but back then I made the transition in all the wrong ways. And, I must say, it felt great! I was happier than I had been in years. That was in March of 2003. Fast forward just two months and I was waking up in the middle of the night with a pounding heart, unsure how rent was going to get paid. The short-lived joy over following my passion began to give way. My fears seemed to be on steroids, gaining momentum as I slowly shrank inside.

With so few clients there was plenty of time for hand wringing and fending off panic attacks, but that was no way to live. I had to get a grip and turn things around. I survived that summer and what follows is my hard-earned advice. If you happen to find yourself in a similar predicament after your big leap, take heart. You can get back on your feet with these seven strategies:

1. Play the worst case scenario game. Face your fears head on. You have nothing to lose at this point. When I asked myself what the worst case scenario would be, I immediately thought of homelessness, but the key to this game is the follow-up question: Is that really possible? To my great relief, I realized that if I couldn’t keep up with the rent I wouldn’t be homeless; I would just move in with my mother who lived about thirty minutes south of me at the time. Certainly not ideal, but way better than homelessness. Plus, I knew if it came to that, I wouldn’t be living with her for long. My mom’s great and all, but I’d have a fire lit under me to move out as fast as humanly possible.

2. Stay present. Even after playing the worst case scenario game, you will have some anxious moments. Fears that are fueled by our attention grow some big muscles. Their power doesn’t fade overnight. When I had trouble sleeping, I’d place a hand over my heart and say to myself: You are fine. In this moment, all is well. You have a cozy apartment, a comfortable bed, and food in the fridge. You are perfectly fine. Along with some deep breathing, this actually worked most nights.

3. Give energy to what you love. The best way to start taking power away from your fears is to redirect your attention and energy to something that makes your heart sing. I was fortunate to have several such things in my life. Aside from my coaching business, I had amazing friends to hang out with, I was dating for the first time in ten years, and it was summertime in Seattle. I had fun, albeit cheaply, but it was a great summer. I loved coaching and all that came with it. I focused on what I wanted and that’s where I chose to put my energy. If you stay clear about your priorities, you can make decisions grounded more in what you love than what you fear.

4. Do what it takes. I was unwilling to get a job, because after all, I had a perfectly lovely business blossoming; it just wasn’t making me any money yet and I had bills to pay. I needed to find a way to fund my vision. So, I turned to Craigslist and started scanning gigs for quick projects I could take on. As a result, I delivered phone books … for a day. I was horrible at it. (If you live on Mercer Island and didn’t get your Verizon phone book in the summer of ’03, I sincerely apologize.) I regrouped and found my way over to the University of Washington’s website after seeing an ad for research subjects. I found the perfect study to participate in – not only did I get paid for my time, but my food was free for three months and I didn’t even have to get injected with experimental drugs. Every week I picked up my bag of healthy, pre-prepared meals and snacks and periodically went in so they could measure my body fat ratio. I lost weight and felt really good. If what you love is important enough to you, you’ll do what it takes.

5. Take care of yourself – physically, emotionally and spiritually. You need all your internal resources in times like these. Exercise does wonders for anxiety, and a brisk walk around the block is free. Seek out the supports that keep you centered and tend to your well-being on a daily basis. Some of my favorite self-care practices were journaling, browsing at book stores, venting to friends, listening to the clanging of the boat masts at the Leschi Moorage, screaming into my pillow, watching B movies, and exercising proud moments of restraint, like fighting off the lure of a Snickers binge.

6. Remember your anchors. Anchors are past experiences that remind you how strong and capable you are. Or, they might remind you that you have a knack for attracting the right solution at the right time. One of my anchors was the experience of packing up a Penske truck seven years earlier and driving across country to move to Seattle. I had no job and only enough money to get by for a few months. I was offered a job just in time and gradually built a new life, over 2,000 miles from where I started. When did you survive or accomplish something that reminded you of all the great stuff you’re made of? In dark times, pull out those anchors and relive the past, focusing on what you did to turn things around. You did it then and you can do it now.

7. Reach out. We tend to withdraw when we’re most in need. Fight that tendency and reach out instead. For me, this was one of the hardest tasks that summer, but it was a lesson I had to learn. No one needs to go through life like a lone wolf. By asking for help and allowing yourself to receive it, you grow as a person. Receive what is offered and say thank you without apologizing.

Epilogue

Things turned around for me that summer. Clients started referring other clients and a thriving practice based on word-of-mouth networking was born. I paid my rent and kept my home office. I also met my husband to be. I don’t advise people to repeat this kind of leap, but every leap, no matter how well thought out and executed, contains risk and fear. Leap in the way that feels right to you. If you happen to land hard, it’s not the end of the world. You can dust yourself off, muster up your courage, and forge on.