Afraid of the Risks associated with leaving your job?

By Andrea Travillian

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Is taking the risk of leaving your job worth the chance to live your dream life? YES, if you are prepared with a plan. Leaving your job because you are burnt-out may solve an immediate issue of joy in your daily life, but when this is done without a detailed plan then your risk dramatically increases and your issues become greater. When you leave with a plan you have already calculated your risks, assessed what to do to avoid them and made arrangements for what happens when they do occur.
Risk is only relative to how much or little you planned and researched your next move. If you jump into your own consulting business but have not done any form of business planning it makes it much harder for you to succeed. Kind of like running around like a chicken with its head cut off! Besides for planning your new business or career move you also need to plan your own personal finances and life situations. Ignoring issues such as cash flow, insurance and day care makes it harder for your next step to be successful. Why? Because you are stressed and thus less productive. So what do you need to do? Make plans to prepare yourself, these include the following steps:

• Plan and evaluate your family finances – if you can only make it two weeks without a job then that was a risky move. Wouldn’t you rather discover that before you left your job?
• Develop a business plan or life action plan – Even if you don’t know exactly what you are going to do if you have a plan of action to decide how you are going to decide then your days will be productive and not wasted time.
• Discuss what factors would make you change direction and move back to a paid job – this is for those of you planning on jumping into your own business. Decide where your end point is, give yourself a deadline.

Once you have made adequate plans, jump! You only have one life to live out your dreams and passions. Make it a good one!