What needs to happen before you quit your day job?

If you are anything like me, your answer will probably include having a successful business and/or winning the lottery.

It’s not until I quit my job that I realized the truth.

Quitting my day job had little to DO with financial security.

For years, I had proclaimed that I lacked the financial freedom to leave my day job behind. It wasn’t true. There were other things in play. Today I’m confessing them.

I’m hoping that you will be inspired to dig deeper and figure out what is really stopping you quitting your job. Once you know, you’ll be that much closer to making your dream business your day job.

Confession 1: I didn’t think it was possible to have a successful business.

I grew up in a family where both of my parents worked. I believed that I had to work for someone else in order to make money. I thought success was going to school and working for a big corporation.

Just in case you are wondering … I knew better and still this belief was well rooted in my DNA.

I needed to know that my business could work before I actually left my job for good.

Letting go of this limiting belief took time because I had to build up my faith bowl. I had to have enough faith to overshadow the doubt. I put a pebble in the faith bowl every time I had a client pay me. I put another every time I learned of others who had successful businesses. I put another every time I learned a new skill. It took time, but eventually the faith bowl over shadowed the doubt.

Only when the faith overshadowed the doubt was I able to leave.

Confession 2: I thought I should stay in a job I loved

The hardest decision of my career was leaving my position at CN (Canadian Railway).

As much as I liked to complain about the place, I loved everything about it. It was an exciting and dynamic place to work. I spent a lot of my time working on stressful projects. I learned how to get shit done. I was valued for it.

Oh and I loved the people I worked with.

Leaving was hard.

The truth is that it took me so long because I had so much to learn by being there. The last and probably the biggest learning was that it’s okay to leave just because I wanted to do something different.

The truth is that giving myself permission to leave took years.

Confession 3: I thought I could commit to my business and keep my day job as a safety net.

I really wanted this to be true.

The more I progressed in my business, the more it became apparent that I could not keep doing both.

There were days where I was so tired that I didn’t pick up the phone when clients called. I ignored emails. I couldn’t get consistent with communication because there just wasn’t enough time to do everything. I didn’t market myself.

All I wanted was time to rest.

I tried to do because I wanted the perfect plan. I wanted a safety net so that if things didn’t work out I wouldn’t fall to my death. Here’s the thing: there is no perfect plan. There is only a commitment to making it happen.

The truth is that I only committed when I let go of my safety net. Only then was I willing to do whatever it took.

In you are in the same boat as me, I don’t want you think that you have to quit your job: only you know that. The real question you must ask yourself is this, “When is the right time?”

Confession 4: I thought I couldn’t follow my heart.

I teach people to follow and trust their intuition all the time, so it’s kind of ironic that I tried to build a business by ignoring my own heart.

There was just something in me that said a business had to be 100% rational. Including your heart in a business was a recipe for disaster.

That’s how I ended up with GetProjectsYouLove.Com. In this business, I was to help female project managers move their careers up to the next level. Rationally it made completely sense because I was a project manager. My heart had something different to say. It screamed, “NO…………..!”

I followed my business coach advice and kept with it.

A week after we finished working together, I dropped it and followed my heart. At the time, my heart was saying weight-loss coaching. I could feel it in every cell of my being. I just knew it was right. Overnight, I started finding clients. I started to talk about my business with enthusiasm. I was now ready to do whatever it took to make it work.

The only way I was ever going to leave my job was if I followed my heart and built a business I loved.

WHAT ARE THE REAL REASONS YOU ARE STILL IN YOUR DAY JOB?

I’ve just confessed the 4 real reasons why it took me so long to leave my day job.

For me to jump ship, I had to believe that building was possible. I also had to learn to trust to follow my heart. I had to realize that it was OKAY to want something different even when things are good. Finally, I had to let go of my security blanket and just go for it.

So now, I want to know… what are the real reasons you haven’t left your day job behind? Tell me in the comment box below.