It exists in the person who was nervous to go on a dedicated workout regimen in fear of failure, but decided to take the leap and do it anyway. She will see over time that while this fear of failure remains, all the benefits she received due to her improved physical and mental well-being were once unthinkable, yet now she has them.

It exists in the person who was scared to publish personal essays in fear of ridicule, but decided to take the leap and do it anyway. He will learn over time that while the fear of rejection may persist, all the benefits he accumulated in the form of new relationships and opportunities were once unthinkable, yet now he has them.

In the short-term, the expectations you have pre-leap largely carry over post-leap. Unsurprisingly, I got the workweek that I desired, broadened the group of musicians I knew, and continued solving the problem of fiscal viability. Nothing too abnormal there.

This was the sole problem I had to figure out, and I felt that as long as the benefits would push me to improve my work and broaden my audience, that would naturally help to solve the fiscal concern in turn.

I spent the better part of the next year releasing projects, meeting other musicians, building my audience, and to my surprise, actually selling my work too. While the income I made from music wasn’t close to what I was making at my day job, it still showed me that a viable fiscal path existed, and that it had the potential to grow as long as I... See more

However, I needed to first see that I was able to make some money doing this, as blindly following your passion without seeing any proof of work is a terrible strategy to pursue.

Trying to fulfill one’s potential may seem like in a pie-in-the-sky, utopian concept, but it’s become increasingly clear to me that it’s the most sensical thing to do once you frame it in the proper light.

This is why when someone takes the leap in a professional setting, we dub this phenomenon as “following your passion” instead of “following your rationality.”

Why quit this comfortable job for a risky move into entrepreneurship?

Why call my sister to patch things up when it’s easier to just ignore her?

Why publish essays online when I don’t plan on doing it for a living?