How to grow comfortable with career uncertainty.

A question I'm often asked by those in career transition, in some variation or another:

"How can I get comfortable with all of this uncertainty and fear I'm experiencing right now?"

My answer?

You can't.

You shouldn't.

Don't.

That discomfort -- which will typically manifest itself as fear, anxiety, or even depression -- isn't there to scare you out of reaching for your dreams and goals.

It's there because making big leaps (or even small shifts) to your career and life can be terrifying as hell.

It's there because not getting instant results can be frustrating, and make us question our ambitions entirely.

It's there because the human condition is to always find the path of least resistance, and most often, career change falls well outside of this definition.

But so far as I'm concerned the only way to rise up and catapult yourself forward -- in anything -- is to look terror in the eye and take a run at it. And keep taking a run at it.

And when you fall on your face, dust yourself off and then find a new way to take a run at it. (Because doing the same thing that's not working over and over again is just plain stupid, really.)

If something truly matters to you, instead of growing comfortable with your uncertainty, you must instead find ways to de-stress while pushing through the extreme discomfort that often goes along with change.

Because the only other option is to settle.

And settling is for suckers.

Got a story to share about how you refuse(d) to settle? Please share it in the comments below!

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