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Something I hear all the time from people who say they want to leave the Corporate World is…’I would love to escape the rat race but it’s just impossible because’….and then they list out a lot of reasons about why it’s impossible for them to escape. Most are really good valid reasons, but not one could really be called ‘impossible’.
We have this habit of saying something is impossible, when actually we mean it’s just too complicated or we think it will involve hard work and energy, or it's going to take too long, or the classic…we just don’t have the time. But, in most cases, it’s not as difficult as you think once you get started and definitely not impossible.
One of my favourite inspirational quotes has been attributed to Nelson Mandela. I love it so much that I had a print made and framed and it hangs on my wall near my desk. Now Nelson Mandela said many great, motivational and inspirational things, but this one really stuck with me because it is so simple, true and you can immediately resonate with it. You may have heard it before as it is well known, the quote is “It always seems impossible, until it's done”. We’ve all had times where we have thought something was just not possible but then somehow you make it happen, or see others make it happen and you wish you had done it, because after it’s been done you see how possible it actually was.
Most of the important achievements and discoveries in history were seen as impossible until they actually were done. The human race would not have got very far if they had just given up because they could not see any chance of success, even if they could not initially see how they could succeed.
So, if you are thinking you would love to change your career but circumstances in your life make it seem impossible, how do you start making it possible?
BELIEVE IT’S POSSIBLE
Belief can be such a powerful thing. Just believing something is possible can open up your mind to ideas and solutions that would be otherwise be squashed under the weight of your doubt.
There’s a story where a doctoral candidate at the University of California called George Dantzig arrived late for his statistics class. He found 2 statistical theorems written on a blackboard and mistook them for a homework assignment. He worked out proofs for them without knowing that they were considered "unsolvable." Both theorems later became part of his dissertation.
In 1954, Roger Bannister became the first athlete to be recorded running a mile in under 4 minutes, but his record was smashed just 46 days later.
It was less than 70 years ago that Edmund Hillary became the first person to climb Everest, and now up to 1,000 people a year attempt to make the climb.
When people believe something is possible it frees them from doubts and hesitations. They get on with taking action and making things happen, because they know it's happened before.
So for you to make your escape from your corporate job happen, you need to stop saying it's impossible and start believing it’s possible. Ask yourself, have others done this before me? Then if you know they have then you can do the same. Yes, they may have had different challenges but they will have had things to overcome. Use their stories as inspiration that it is possible for you to achieve your goals.
You can also trick your mind into believing what you want to do is possible by following a method used by professional athletes, which is visualisation. This isn’t just about thinking about the end result they want to achieve but the whole process to get there. So if they are in a race, they imagine the preparation, what it’s like on the start line, how they feel mentally and physically, their progress at different stages of the race, who's around them, what it's like crossing the finish line, then they imagine themselves on the podium getting their gold medal. Once they have the visualisation clear, they run it in their mind over and over, until the mind actually believes that they have already won the race, so doing it again is possible and that extra belief can be the edge over the opposition.
So your brain is comfortable with what it knows and what it believes is possible. So if you can imagine yourself completing all the steps to reach your goal of leaving the corporate world to start your new dream career, including things like handing in your notice and leaving the office for the last time, you can trick your brain into believing you have already done it. When your brain thinks you have already done something, it does not register it as a risk or a danger and will not automatically put up the mind blocks and negative beliefs to stop you moving forward. It will see what you are trying to do as possible.
Believing in yourself is also key. Audrey Hepburn famously said ‘Nothing is impossible the word itself says I'm possible’. You have to believe that you are possible, meaning the true you and the place you are supposed to be in the world is possible, and you can make it happen with determination and passion.
HAVE A STEP BY STEP PLAN
Having a detailed step by step plan is essential when going for something that seems impossible.
I was watching British Olympic snowboarder Amiee Fuller being interviewed on TV
and the interviewer asked her how she prepares to take on the really big jumps and obstacles in competition. Amiee said that she tackles it by breaking it down into stages, then works out how to do each stage step by step, move by move and only then does she consider the main goal. Then she focuses on the result, the feeling she will get when in the air and when the jump is done, and then uses that excitement to fuel her into the jump.
This approach is something we can learn from. Sometimes, the only way forward is to move one step at a time, rather than focussing on the more mammoth task you’re facing. Choose a task and complete it and move on to the next one, until your big goal seems less scary and far more achievable.
RESILIENCE AND PATIENCE
You do need to have resilience and patience when going for something that seems impossible to you. Resilience is needed as you will have down days, and things that don’t go as well, so you need to be strong and not let it derail you. Try and learn from when things don’t go to plan and believe there is probably a reason, that you’ll find out later, as to why it did not work out as you planned. You can’t let setbacks stop your escape project.
Patience is something that is not mentioned much in this context but you will need it. Now, if you’re in a position to take a career leap immediately, fantastic, go for it. But that is quite rare and not something I recommend unless you have a strong plan, support and financial back up. In most cases, it may be that in order to make your move you need to re-train or refine an existing skills, or you will need to save money, or you need to wait for your children to get a bit older, or you need hold fire on quitting your corporate job for some other reason. It can be frustrating being desperate to move on but needing to take it slow. So create smaller goals and focus on meeting them, celebrate the smaller wins and keep in mind that everything you work on in relation to your potential new career is taking you another step closer, and one step further from where you are. Then before long you will be moving on to that job and life you've been dreaming of.
A DASH OF DARING
To face what seems impossible to you, you need to have a certain amount of daring. Being daring means being brave, adventurous and willing to take a risk. The truth is that you can’t make a big change like completely changing your career path without taking some degree of risk but that does not mean it's the dangerous kind. If you’ve planned properly and have evaluated everything, you can move ahead knowing that although it’s a risk, it’s one you can take with confidence.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS…
You can say ‘I’m too old’, or ‘I don’t have the skills or the knowledge’, or ‘I have too many commitments’ or ’I have dependents’, or ‘I have too much to lose’, or ‘I don’t have the time’, or ‘I have no energy’, but ultimately your task is not impossible. It is possible.
Once you get your head around that fact, there are no excuses if you want to change your life. When something is possible, it means there is a way to make it happen. If you believe in the possibility and in yourself, you have a step by step plan, are patient and resilient, and are just a little bit daring, before long you will have done what you were aiming for and will look back and wonder how you ever thought it was impossible!
