AP 0982: How Do I Know When I’m Ready to Quit My Job?

AskPat 982 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 982 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.

We have a question coming in today from Monica, but before we get to that, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks, one of my favorite companies because they help serve me and millions of other small businesses with managing our business finances from easily keeping track of our income and expenses, giving us all the necessary forms that we might need to do taxes, and all those kinds of things, which is really important, obviously. But then also invoicing. They help with some amazing features they have with invoicing. So, if you bill anybody, if you're like a coach or a consultant or freelancer, if you do any billing, you want to make it easy for yourself and make it for the other person you're billing easy too, to pay you. So, they make it possible. So, if you want to check it out for thirty days for free, all you have to do to get FreshBooks is go to FreshBooks.com/askpat and just make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. There you go. That easy.

All right, here's today question from Monica.

Monica: Hey, Pat. This is Monica from California. I love the podcast. I'm actually one of your students in your beta group of your podcast academy. So, here's my question: How do you know you're ready to quit your job? Okay, so, here's the deal. I've been working hard for about a year on my real estate business and that's going to be the main source of my income for now. But, I'd also love to do a couple other things. First off, I'm launching my podcast and my own business academy, as well as I recently started doing interior styling for homes. Also, in the next couple of months, I should be debt free. So, it all looks good on paper, but how do I know I'm ready to quit? Thanks Pat. Have a great day.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Monica. Thank you so much for the question. I appreciate it. I love how you are obviously planning this and you're putting things into place and you're making things happen. Just—I want to congratulate you on that. It seems like you are very close to that point where you would be ready. How do you know if you're actually ready, though, what is that mark or that thing, that sign, that tells you, “yes, you are ready?” I'm just here to tell you that it is never going to happen. It is never going to happen. There is never a right time to do anything. If we wait around for the “right time,” the “right moment,” it's just going to pass us by.

I know this from personal experience and I'm just—again, any chance I can to thank my wife I do, and this is a great time to do that, because she always knows these things that are happening in our lives and in our family that are just the right things to do at the right time. For example, when we bought our home, and I wasn't sure if we were ready to by our house, but she was like, “When are we going to be ready? Like, what does that mean to be ready?” And I couldn't answer that question and really it was just more of a mental thing than anything. So, I knew that then there was never going to be like a dollar amount, there was never going to be a date, there was never going to be a moment where something was going to pop out of the ground or fall from the sky and say, “Hey, now's your time. Your window's open, finally.” No, your window's open right now. It is all about what's happening in your head and if you really truly believe you feel like you can do it. That's really when you're ready and even before then, you're ready, because . . . It's not going to happen. So, don't wait around to get to that one moment where you feel like something's going to happen and there's going to be something like a sign or something that tells you when you're ready. So, I don't think that sounds harsh; I think that sounds real. You know, “Uh, I'm just waiting for the perfect time.” You know, “I don't think we're ready yet.” Well, when are you going to be ready? And I think if you can answer that question personally, for yourself, then do it and make that the thing that makes you ready.

Some people I know save up for something and then they have a specific dollar amount where they then go buy that car or that thing that they've been wanting. I mean, that's their definition of how they know they're ready, because they saved up that dollar amount. But, if it's not anything that's like that, if it's more of an internal thing, well then you don't know, and you kind of just have to take that leap. It's kind of one of the most amazing feelings in the world.

So yes, it's scary, but like I talked about in the last episode—I'm going to reread the quote from the last episode, because I think it actually works better in this one. I'm sorry I didn't plan it ahead of time, I should have. But, that is, “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” And, typically, when you are considering if you're ready or not for something, you're typically at that moment when you're ultimately the most scared of it. That's a sign that, you know, that's something you should potentially do, because . . . Does it mean you have to do it right now? No, but this is a hard question. I cannot tell you when; you have to do it yourself. How do you know? I'm just telling you, there's not going to be a clear sign. You just have to go and do it and take that leap. Oftentimes, considering well, what's the worst that can happen, you're also going to see that maybe the worst that can happen is actually not so bad at all. But also, I would consider, well, what would be the best thing that can happen, and what would you not be opening yourself up to if you were to not actually move forward? What opportunities would pass you by?

So, Monica, thank you so much. I want to wish you all the best and I'd love to get a follow up from you later on after you've made some decisions and moved forward. So Monica, I'm going to send you an AskPat teeshirt for having your question featured here on the show, and for those of you listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you, and here's a quote for today's episode by Robert Louis Stevenson, that is, “Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.” Cheers guys, and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.