Let’s enter The Leap.
The leap is what you need to take in order to move forward with building a business around yourself and your craft.
The creator who’s taken the leap is the creator who’s put something out into the world and made their first dollar.
The creator who’s taken the leap is the creator who knows that while theory is important, action is ultimately what matters, and action can be scary and uncomfortable (especially when it involves asking for money).
The fact of the matter is, the majority of creators are overly romantic about their craft. They set up these invisible mental scripts where they essentially tell themselves that making money is bad.
(This is also why the majority of artists and creators underprice their work).
Many of these creators set these scripts up so they can justify inaction. If making money is “bad”—then they shouldn’t do it. And if they shouldn’t do it, then they don’t need to do it. That way they can stay in their comfort zone.
The creator who wins and scales is the one who takes the leap, who moves from the land of hopes and dreams to the land of momentum and opportunity.
The land of hopes and dreams is a comfortable place. But it’s comfortable in that sort of shallow, fleeting way.
It’s a place where you have the freedom to think, to dream, to theorize, to come up with amazing ideas.
A place where you can sit and dream about an amazing future.
A place where you can tell yourself stories.
But deep down, it’s actually a very uncomfortable place to be in. Because when the music stops playing, and you stop dreaming, you realize that you haven’t actually moved forward.
You haven’t got closer to where you want to go.
You haven’t shipped anything, made a decision, or made a commitment.
You haven’t even made the first step.
But the first step is what brings you into the land of momentum and opportunity.
The land of momentum and opportunity is an exciting place, but that doesn’t mean it’s not uncomfortable.
If the land of hopes and dreams is like sitting on a beach with perfect warm weather and amazing water to swim in (where you can spend a week, but beyond that it gets a bit boring), then the land of momentum and opportunity is like going on an extended hiking adventure through mountains, over rivers, kayaking through lakes.
There’s some danger involved. It’s not comfortable. There are stressful moments. There are moments where you just need to commit and do the work regardless of whether you feel like it or not.
But despite it not being comfortable, it’s far more exciting and interesting than the land of hopes and dreams, because you’re actually working towards something and seeing results. You climb to the top of the mountain that once loomed over you, and then you see the next one and get a little discouraged before forging ahead anyway—knowing that it will be worth the effort.
The creator who’s in the land of momentum and opportunity is almost always more fulfilled than the creator in the land of hopes and dreams.
And The Leap is what makes the difference.
The Leap happens in the mind before it happens in the physical world. It’s an internal commitment that you are going to ship something, you are prepared to face any potential negative comments, and you are prepared to put in the work.
If you’re struggling with making this leap, then keep an eye out for next week’s newsletter. I’ll share a 5-step framework that will help you get out of your own head and start taking real action.
Until then, have a great week.
