37 | The "Single Jump" Myth

In a conversation with a friend, my wife came up with a fantastic metaphor for pursuing career change.

The metaphor can be extended to anything where there is a vision that is grander than the current reality - assembling a group of people, starting a business, or even running a household.

Pursuing any change is a lot like trying to get from one side of a river to the other.

Our modern-day habits of small talk and social media have led us to believe that some people can make it across the river in a single jump.

No one can cross a river in a single jump...I promise.

There are two troubles with the "single jump" myth.

The first is that it makes change seem easier than it is, which is pretty discouraging when your first jump ends with a splash.

The second is that it makes it seem like there is more to be found on the far bank than there is in the river.

In reality, change is more like gradually jumping to different rocks to get closer to the far bank.

Some rocks are huge, easy to spot, and bone dry.

Some rocks are bunched closely together, and some rocks are far apart.

Some rocks are tiny and hard to spot initially but are the only way to keep making progress.

Some rocks are wobbly or slippery (or both!) and require extra care landing on them, standing on them, and leaping off them.

Sometimes your shoe, maybe even your sock, gets wet.

Sometimes you hit a dead end and must retrace a couple of steps.

Sometimes you might have to avoid the rock with the snake on it.

As I have pursued career changes, the process has made me more confident that you can't make it across the river in a single jump - all you can do is find the next rock.

The process has also made me wonder if the far bank is what we're pursuing or if the pursuit is actually the rock jumping itself.

Additional Reading

What’s the next smallest step? by Carl Richards
Reminder that scary things are less scary when you make them smaller.

You Accomplished Something Great. So Now What? by A.C. Shilton
Easy to read introduction to the "arrival fallacy".

118: Start Small by Emily P. Freeman
"Small things don’t always turn into big things, but big things always start out small."

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36 | Investments are a Distraction