Taking the Leap

It is only 315 miles away, but it feels like a million. At least that’s what I kept telling myself as I drove down the interstate road connecting the place I grew up to the place I’d soon be calling my new home. That was about eight years ago and I still consider it one of the best decisions of my life.

My decision to move was easy; I’d been thinking about moving to Minneapolis for years. But putting my desire into action was really difficult. My biggest hurdle was internal. I’d never lived anywhere else before and Minneapolis was a much larger city than I was used to living in. Of course, I had other difficulties too. Where would I find a job, where will I live and how will I get my stuff there?

Of course that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a scary decision, far from it. Just consider that I was leaving the place in which I was born, grew up and went to college. I’d traveled to many different places, but I’d only had one home. And I had decided to make one of the biggest changes I’d ever faced.

But I kept telling myself that I had to find a way to overcome my difficulties. This move wasn’t something I felt like doing; I had to do it. My hometown had become suffocating and I no longer had any reasons to stay there. I needed a big city where I could re-invent myself.

Looking back on it, I can see why it took me so long to make this transition. My goal was to find a job first and then sign an apartment. I made many attempts to get myself set up in Minneapolis, but nothing seemed to really work. I went to job interviews and looked at several apartments. I even asked others for advice on what to do. But still it just remained a dream.

Eventually I realized that nothing would change unless I took some drastic action. What happened gave me a life lesson that radically changed the way I look at everything.

I decided to take a leap.

I abandoned my original goal of finding a job first and just signed a lease on the first good, reasonably-priced apartment I could find. I was really excited about the move, but terrified about the prospect of paying for an apartment with savings until I could find employment. I knew the risk, but I was absolutely willing to take it.

My fears turned out to be unjustified. To my surprise, I found a job within one week of getting the apartment. I thought long and hard about why it took me so long beforehand to find a job and apartment. Everything went so quickly now.

And then I figured it out.

I had not given myself any other option but success. Because I signed the lease on the apartment, I had committed fully to living in Minneapolis. I no longer had any safety net and getting a job became something I HAD to do. In addition to that, I stopped dividing my focus between getting a job and finding an apartment. Once I no longer had a safety net and could focus entirely on finding a job, I got it.

This life lesson taught me that you sometimes just have to take the leap.