0
SPEAKER_00
Hey, Jordan Harbinger here.
0
SPEAKER_00
Welcome to Minnesota Monday.
0
SPEAKER_00
Happy to be here with you, kicking off the week with something quick and actionable that you can implement right away.
0
SPEAKER_00
It ll make you more magnetic.
0
SPEAKER_00
It ll make you more effective.
0
SPEAKER_00
And today, we re talking with my friend, Jenny Blake, on how to decide whether to leave your current career.
0
SPEAKER_00
Is the grass always greener?
0
SPEAKER_00
Jenny Blake will show us how to test that out before we make any big moves.
0
SPEAKER_00
Here s Jenny.
0
SPEAKER_01
One of the ways that our society likes to keep people in line is to tell them, the grass is always greener, whether it s a job or a relationship.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I think that this holds a lot of people back when they hit a pivot point because they question themselves.
0
SPEAKER_01
Part of their gut is whispering, you know, there s more out there for you.
0
SPEAKER_01
And yet on the other hand, they wonder, am I just unnecessarily complaining or unhappy?
0
SPEAKER_01
Is the grass always greener?
0
SPEAKER_01
I think it s helpful first and foremost we do have to ask about the macro environment that somebody is in.
0
SPEAKER_01
Are you sitting on the right plot of land and now you just need to optimize your grass growing abilities or is it that you need to move to a patch of greener grass, another part of town, another city, and so the way that this can show up in career is
0
SPEAKER_01
Let s say you work for someone else, you re working at a big company, that s a patch of grass but maybe you would rather be self-employed or you don t know but you have a hypothesis that self-employment is going to be a better fit and that was the case for me.
0
SPEAKER_01
I was working at Google five and a half years in a dream job doing coaching and career development and I actually thought I would be
0
SPEAKER_01
a bad entrepreneur.
0
SPEAKER_01
I thought that I m not cut out for that.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m not, you know, I m so good at following directions that it s not for me.
0
SPEAKER_01
And yet that grass is greener feeling it, it never went away.
0
SPEAKER_01
This looking toward, well, what would it be like if I could be self-employed and go all in on my business?
0
SPEAKER_01
I had a book coming out in 2011.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I finally got to the point, and I think this is so important to ask ourselves, is what would I regret more?
0
SPEAKER_01
Staying in place or making a decision, pivoting, and no matter how it turns out, I ll know that I ve tried.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so in my case, once I left Google, I had this immediate feeling of relief.
0
SPEAKER_01
Even though I didn t know exactly how I was going to earn a living.
0
SPEAKER_01
I just had the feeling that I m on the right plot of grass.
0
SPEAKER_01
The grass really is greener for me on the other side.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I will tell you, people asked me, it s now been five and a half years since I left, people have often asked me, do you regret leaving?
0
SPEAKER_01
There were times where my bank account got down to zero, zero dollars.
0
SPEAKER_01
I was eating power bars for dinner, looking wistfully in restaurants at people with their friends laughing and feeling sad that I couldn t afford to be doing that and still in those moments.
0
SPEAKER_01
I didn t regret leaving.
0
SPEAKER_01
So there are three frameworks to help someone explore.
0
SPEAKER_01
So for all of you listening, there are three things that can help you parse whether you re on the right plot of land or whether you need to make a bigger move.
0
SPEAKER_01
One, identify in your career or in your business what are your must-haves.
0
SPEAKER_01
You re nice-to-haves and you re can t-stands, you re deal-breakers.
0
SPEAKER_01
We often hear this thrown around in the relationship self-help genre, you know, what are your deal-breakers?
0
SPEAKER_01
You can think about it in terms of career and business too and try and understand does your current situation have some of those deal-breakers because that will help inform a next move.
0
SPEAKER_01
The next thing to look at is
0
SPEAKER_01
Using this grass growing metaphor, what are your knowns and what are your unknowns?
0
SPEAKER_01
So when you think about is the grass greener over on this other side of the fence that you want to make a move, you want to leave your job and start a business or pivot your business to a totally different direction.
0
SPEAKER_01
Ask yourself in terms of ideal outcomes, what do you know that Greengrass looks like for you?
0
SPEAKER_01
How do you define it for yourself?
0
SPEAKER_01
What are your known variables of your own happiness formula?
0
SPEAKER_01
So for me, I know that physical wellness is really important to me and that if I m able to set my own schedule every day, I m much happier.
0
SPEAKER_01
And some of these things I ll say you won t you don t know till you try.
0
SPEAKER_01
So you re going to have unknowns.
0
SPEAKER_01
For me a huge unknown was can I actually do this?
0
SPEAKER_01
Can I earn a living on my own?
0
SPEAKER_01
I don t know.
0
SPEAKER_01
I didn t know if I could.
0
SPEAKER_01
float my rent in New York.
0
SPEAKER_01
And actually, I ll say I hit this pivot point two years into self-employment where in order to stay in New York, I had to move.
0
SPEAKER_01
And my rent doubled overnight, but my business income did not.
0
SPEAKER_01
And still, I didn t want to go back.
0
SPEAKER_01
I thought in that moment, should I go crawling back to Google and should I get in touch with my former coworkers and ask for a job?
0
SPEAKER_01
But in my gut, I knew that wasn t the answer for me.
0
SPEAKER_01
One way to tell if you re on the right plot of land, right plot of grass is even when things get low, even when you have your worst, hardest days, would you do anything differently?
0
SPEAKER_01
Would you want to change the macro picture that you re working in?
0
SPEAKER_01
So on that note, it s really helpful to think about ideal outcomes and also some outcome modeling.
0
SPEAKER_01
When you are at a pivot point, you re often staring at this fork in the road.
0
SPEAKER_01
Do I stay in place?
0
SPEAKER_01
Do I just sit back down?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, embrace this notion that the grass is always greener and kind of stay put.
0
SPEAKER_01
Or do I actually pursue that new grass?
0
SPEAKER_01
Two things to ask.
0
SPEAKER_01
One, if you move in that new direction, what does success look like?
0
SPEAKER_01
Why are you taking this risk?
0
SPEAKER_01
What s important to you about it?
0
SPEAKER_01
What does success look like on the other side?
0
SPEAKER_01
Whether that s how much you re earning, what your ideal average day looks like, what kind of impact you re able to make on the world.
0
SPEAKER_01
what s the worst case scenario and is that still worth it?
0
SPEAKER_01
So what is the worst case?
0
SPEAKER_01
If you make a move and it doesn t work out and it doesn t support your theory that the grass is indeed green or is somewhere else, A, what will you do in order if things are not going according to plan?
0
SPEAKER_01
And then B, if those worst case scenarios start occurring, will you regret having made this choice?
0
SPEAKER_01
And both of those, and you wanna have both because there s a story of the, it s a Cherokee
0
SPEAKER_01
legend or story where a grandson asks, the grandfather says to his grandson, we have two wolves inside of us, joy and fear or love and hate.
0
SPEAKER_01
And the grandson says, well, which one lives?
0
SPEAKER_01
And the grandfather replies, the one we feed.
0
SPEAKER_01
So when a lot of people are at a pivot point, they only feed the fear, they feed the worst case scenarios, they feed the status quo.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so it s really critical not to ignore the ideal scenario and what success looks like, even though it might feel a little fuzzy or
0
SPEAKER_01
It s actually really, really important.
0
SPEAKER_01
Think of it like putting a pin for your desired destination in a maps app.
0
SPEAKER_01
You want to know some sense of what success looks like.
0
SPEAKER_01
So the only, the last kind of caveat here is running small experiments, I call them pilots, can help you test patches of grass.
0
SPEAKER_01
So it s helpful not to try and go cold turkey.
0
SPEAKER_01
That s why I m writing about pivots, not 180s.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s really helpful if you can test small patches of grass to see if you like it.
0
SPEAKER_01
But the caveat here, the pivot paradox is, and to switch, I m going to switch metaphors for a moment.
0
SPEAKER_01
If we walk into a bakery, you can try a piece of cake and that will let you know what that entire cake tastes like.
0
SPEAKER_01
But just trying a piece of cake does not let you know what it s like to run that bakery or to have had every pastry in the bakery.
0
SPEAKER_01
So for example, having a side hustle that s earning you $500 a month.
0
SPEAKER_01
does not necessarily inform what it will be like to try and do that full time.
0
SPEAKER_01
So that s where some people who have a hobby that they love, when they go to monetize it, it sucks all the joy out of it versus actually being the right move.
0
SPEAKER_01
So that s just something to consider.
0
SPEAKER_01
We can never reduce uncertainty 100%, but running little patch tests can ultimately take you closer.
0
SPEAKER_01
And then if you re, after all this, still unsure,
0
SPEAKER_01
Two things, one, get quiet and ask yourself, what does my gut say?
0
SPEAKER_01
Because often our gut knows, we re just afraid to hear what it has to say.
0
SPEAKER_01
So your gut instincts and intuition, that can be really informative.
0
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t mean you have to make the move tomorrow, but at least tune into it.
0
SPEAKER_01
And then if you re still unclear after all that, you re still waffling of which, whether the grass is greener where you are or where you re looking to go,
0
SPEAKER_01
Wait, sometimes the best thing to do is wait and either you can kind of track, if you re a more analytical left brain person, you can track over 30 days and kind of jot down notes and observations.
0
SPEAKER_01
I like to rate on a scale of 1 to 5, how do I feel about my life overall and then how do I feel about this area under evaluation.
0
SPEAKER_01
And then the second thing is to kind of wait.
0
SPEAKER_01
Someone said to me once, they said, one day you ll wake up and you ll know.
0
SPEAKER_01
And to treat the uncertainty, to actually give the uncertainty some respect, that that not knowing, it s either a no and not yet or not good enough for you.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I didn t make that sentence.
1
SPEAKER_01
sentence up, but that s kind of this, it s, it s unknown.
1
SPEAKER_01
I haven t been able to find the attribution, but that when something isn t working out yet, or it doesn t feel like it s happening, it s either a no, a not yet, or not good enough for you.
1
SPEAKER_01
And only a little more time and possibly a little more data and experimentation will let you know which of those three it is.
1
SPEAKER_00
Thanks so much to Jenny Blake for that.
1
SPEAKER_00
Don t forget about the Art of Charm Challenge.
1
SPEAKER_00
It ll help you connect with others, create more productive personal and business relationships, step-by-step challenges included to help you move forward every single week, and there s a Facebook group with thousands of other AOC family taking the challenge as well.
1
SPEAKER_00
Of course, AJ and I are in there with the rest of the Art of Charm team, helping you all move through the challenges.
1
SPEAKER_00
Text CHARMED to 33444, that s C-H-A-R-M-E-D to 33444 here in the USA, or go to theartofcharm.com slash challenge
1
SPEAKER_00
and get rocking!