A friend of mine messaged me today to tell me she quit her job – her first professional, career, JOB job – without having another lined up. She was freaking out. She sort of had a plan, she’d loosely lined up additional work to fill the time and space and has a strong likelihood that a job she actually wants will open up in a couple weeks and she has a strong likelihood of getting that job. But there aren’t any guarantees.

There just aren’t guarantees in life. We can’t limit ourselves to only making moves when they’re safe. We don’t grow and change in circumstances with limited risk.

One of my favorite quotes since high school is “A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.” We can’t only make the safe moves in life. Sometimes we have to risk. We have to fly.

Trying big things is terrifying. I 100% agree with that. But the success you feel when you try something big and it works! That’s as good as it gets.

I am terrible at taking risks. I wring my fingers and agonize over it and analyze every move and then in the end it’s always an impulsive “sure, why not?” final decision. And one way or another, life goes on. It may not be the way I wanted or expected, but it forces change.

Try big things. At worst it teaches you resilience and gives you confidence you can roll with the punches and figure out how to survive in adversity – that’s a huge skill to know you have in you. At best, you stretched yourself and succeeded and expanded your own belief in your abilities.

Making changes without a safety net is important to our growth. We need to learn how to risk. The older and more comfortable we get in our circumstances, the scarier risk and change can be. The best and most formative experiences I’ve had are the ones where things didn’t go according to plan. When I failed the bar exam and had to wait six months to start my “real life” as a lawyer, it was my worst nightmare. It was public embarrassment, it was panic at how I’d pay my bills, it was questioning my whole future plan and whether I was really cut out for that. And in the end, it taught me more about myself and helped me build more skills than I ever expected and took me on a different path than I ever anticipated for myself. No regrets.

Setting goals and benchmarks to help give you a timeframe to finally take the leap is a huge help in this regard. We are good at coping with mediocrity. We are good at justifying good enough or at least not bad enough to pull the plug. Sometimes pulling the plug is the best thing we can do though. Deciding for yourself that this just isn’t the right fit and there’s got to be something better out there – even when you don’t know what that something else is – is so affirming. You are affirming to yourself that you deserve to be satisfied and fulfilled and challenged and there’s a better way you can serve the world than in this unfulfilling circumstance.

Taking the leap and cutting yourself free from that circumstance without a guaranteed safety-net or plan in place is about the most bold and invigorating thing there is. Go be resourceful and resilient and find what’s right for you. Take the risk and grow.