8484 marieclaire.com.auPHOTOGRAPHY BY GETTY IMAGES. EDITED BY ALLEY PASCOE.How to
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Your heart wants to leave your soul-
sucking cubicle, but your head fears for
your wallet. Author Mike Lewis, who
ditched his day job to follow his passion,
explains how to make the leapPHASE 1:
LISTEN TO THE
LITTLE VOICE
When thinking about leaving your job,
there will be a little voice in the back of your
mind that won’t go away. This first phase of
what I call the Jump Curve is all about listening.
If you’re going to jump, the very first thing you
need to do is sit still in silence and turn up the
volume on this little voice. When I started
thinking about leaving my job in finance to
follow my dream of playing squash
professionally, I took time out to
walk, reflect and listen.PHASE 4:
DON’T LOOK BACK
In the final phase of the Jump Curve,
we’re reminded not to look back. If you’ve
listened to the little voice, made a plan and let
yourself be lucky, you’ve put yourself in position
for a worthwhile jump – regardless of the outcome.
Hard as it may be, refrain from judging your jump
as a success or a fail. By planning, preparing and
jumping with real thought, you will end in a better
position than where you started, regardless of
what the position may be. Never look back.PHASE 3:
LET YOURSELF BE LUCKY
This is the hardest part, arguably, of the
Jump Curve: you’ve solved the “knowns”, you
have many “unknowns” remaining and now it’s time
to jump. At some point you can’t continue to plan and
save and budget. It’s time to say, “OK, I’ve done as much
work as I can, I have put myself in a position to find some
luck and now I am going to jump so that I can collide with
that luck.” By following the first two phases of the Jump
Curve, you are in a position to “collide” with the people,
opportunities and experiences that will make your jump
worthwhile. And it’s at this point when you jump to get
there. For me, this was a tough crossroads, because
I’m an analytical Type A person who truly feared
the unknown. But I had planned one month
well and somewhere after that I had
to believe I would collide
with luck.PHASE 2:
MAKE A PLAN
This is the nitty-gritty phase of the Jump
Curve – when you decide to listen to that voice,
and begin moving forward on what I call the 10,000
unsexy steps towards making the jump. It’s the ugly stuf- the saving, the budgeting, the sketching, the planning, the
cofee chats, the googling, the early mornings and late nights.
The planning can be done in a few key ways: through financial
planning, safety-net sewing and pre-jump practice. In other
words, saving money, building a safe foundation on which you
can fall back and practising your jump. For me, this meant
creating a savings account solely for my jump, a budget
spreadsheet and a slideshow to use in pitching to potential
pro-squash sponsors. It also meant talking to colleagues
so they knew why I was preparing to chase this
dream, as well as joining the pro-tour part time,
so I could see what the jump would
bring me before leaving.
When to Jump by Mike Lewis (Hachette
Australia, $32.99) is out now.successfully
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