Is it too risky to change?
This video is for you, if you’re worried that it’s too risky to change careers or to start your own business. And as a result you’ve decided that staying stuck in that job or that career, even if you hate it, is the “safer” choice for now.
I’m going to bust the myth that it’s too risky to change careers and to start your own business.
What I want to show you is why, in most cases, staying stuck in that scenario you really don’t enjoy is actually the most risky choice you can make.
Why do I say that so confidently? It’s because over the last 12 years, I’ve advised hundreds of aspiring career changers and entrepreneurs just like you.
And what I’ve noticed in the majority of the cases is that most people – Especially if you are smart and in your 30s and 40s – Totally tend to overestimate the risks of making a big change and totally underestimate the risk of staying stuck.
So it’s really the risk of staying stuck that I want to talk about in this video – Because you’re likely underestimating it.
And as a result you are staying stuck in a scenario that’s just not sustainable for you, right?
So let’s talk about that.
Now before we go into that I want to make you aware it’s very, very normal to worry about making a big change.
You’re human and as humans we are hard wired with a negativity bias. So we will worry a lot more about what we perceive as being risky and scary and dangerous. That’s just how we are wired as humans, and that’s how we survived for many thousands of years.
But we don’t live in that world anymore. We live in a world that is speeding up by the minute. And where what is safe is now changing – Especially when it comes to the working world.
So let’s make sure that what you tell yourself and what you believe in, is up to date. Because I can tell you that very, very often not making a move, is the most dangerous career move you can actually make.
So let’s talk about that and what I’ve noticed there especially two areas where smart people tend to underestimate the risk of staying stuck.
The two areas where most people underestimate the risk of staying stuck are:
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Their Personal Life
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Their Professional Life
So I’ll break that down step by step for you.
Your personal life.
What I want you to do is to get out a piece of paper. And I want you to write down three areas.
One is your health, and that’s both mental and physical health.
The other one is your relationships.
And the third one is the quality of your time outside of work.
I want you to get really honest about the real cost of staying stuck and the risks you’re running by not making that change.
Because I bet you are probably underestimating them.
How’s your health doing?
How’s your mental health?
Are you anxious?
Are you depressed?
Are you worried?
And if you stay stuck in that job is that likely to improve those things or actually make it even worse?
What about your physical health?
Do you have any immune system issues?
Do you keep getting ill?
Catching every bug going around or maybe even something more serious?
And do you think for a moment that the reason for this might be to do with the fact that you’re really unhappy in your current work scenario?
Write those risks down.
Those are really the things you should worry about and also ask yourself if you stay, are they likely to improve or to get worse?
And suddenly you will probably realise where the real risk is. It is by staying.
The second area is relationships.
How often do you see your spouse, the love of your life, your partner, your children or even your friends?
And how many times do you have to cancel on them or you can’t plan ahead because work is just taking up so much of your time and energy?
Write down what is the real risk of staying. What’s already happening now?
Fast forward a year to three four or five or 10 years from now.
Is it really sustainable to stay stuck in a job or career or business you don’t enjoy?
Will it make your relationships better or will it make them worse?
And thirdly, what about your time outside of work?
Do you even have time outside of work?
And when you do, do you have the energy to take advantage of it?
Have you got loads of time for your friends, to do the things that matter to you?
Or you so exhausted recovering from work that it doesn’t really happen?
Write down the risk of not changing and project it out.
Alternatively, is your health phenomenal? And it just keeps getting better?
Are your relationships getting better or is the quality of the time outside of work getting better?
Get really honest here and very quickly (in most scenarios) will you realise that the risk of staying stuck is just too high a price to pay.
Now let’s talk about your work life or your professional life.
You’ve likely noticed that the pace of change is accelerating by the minute, and that the world of work is also changing by the minute.
What that means is that what was deemed risky and what was deemed safe up until very recently has likely now been reversed.
So not changing when it’s really needed is now the biggest career change mistake you can actually make.
Think about it, for something to be safe, it needs to be predictable. It needs to be consistent.
But you can receive a call in five minutes time telling you that you no longer have that job you deem safe.
So let’s make sure you really are making the right decision.
And please don’t make the mistake of hoping that things are going to back to “normal.”
The new normal is that not taking risks, is the risky thing to do.
Let’s talk about what you’re really risking professionally by choosing to stay stuck in a job or career you don’t enjoy.
And I want you to get really honest here.
Over the last 18 months have you actually slowly become deskilled in the sense that you’re not really doing any courses, voluntarily at least, to improve your professional skills or to improve your knowledge of your area because you really don’t care about it anymore?
Have you kind of just given up on networking, LinkedIn, being visible in your field and potentially thereby risking your reputation or losing out on really important promotional opportunities?
Right now, if you were to write down what you’re risking by staying stuck, it is likely slowly becoming irrelevant because you’re not improving your current career, because you know it’s a zero sum game.
That is risky.
What is happening to your confidence, when you stay stuck in a job and a career that you don’t like?
You slowly get your confidence eroded.
You might even be bullied by a boss or colleague right now.
Write it down. I want you to get really honest.
What about your potential?
How much are you actually fulfilling your potential right now?
And by staying stuck is going to get better or to get worse?
Here’s the deal – The real risk is staying stuck and not doing work you love.
Not doing work that’s meaningful to you.
Write down what the real cost and risk to your potential is if you stay stuck.
Then review at all of that (the risk of staying stuck professionally), together with the health stuff, the relationships stuff, the time stuff – And you are able to make a very smart decision as to whether the real risk is staying stuck (which if you’re like most people it really is).
Don’t kid yourself. Clearly everybody is always worried about the money piece. But here’s the deal:
You can always make money, but you will never get a broken marriage back. You will never get your time back. You will never get your potential back. You will never get the lost time with your children or yourself back.
So let’s be really clear that money is the one factor that everybody’s always so worried about and hence they forget about all these other factors. So get really honest with yourself about what’s truly at stake here.
I believe that the biggest risk that anybody can run is to never have the opportunity to do work they truly love. Work that’s meaningful.
So if you go through these exercises and realise you’re risking a heck of a lot by staying stuck, then please don’t waste your life away.
No job is worth killing yourself over.
No job is worth risking your relationship, your health or your potential for.
Life is just too short.
Remember: Not changing is really the new risky.
So there you go, that’s that myth busted and I really hope that you realise that in most cases staying stuck is the most risky choice you can make.
So go through the exercises.
You might want to watch the video again and then make that decision and decide what’s best for you.
In most cases, it will likely be to move on, get the heck out of there and go for what really matters. Life is just too bloody short.
If you want some more help, I’ve got something very concrete for you.
Go to www.rikke.me/kickstart
You’ll get a 1-pager over there with 3 highly concrete strategies you can use to get your change of to a really incredible start.
So you don’t have to stay stuck any longer.
Thank you.