If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking, or wanted to change your body in the gym, or wanted to achieve any of your dreams, then you’ve had to take a leap of faith. You’ve had to believe that the impossible was possible and jumped into the unknown to figure things out as you fall. It’s terrifying, but it had to be done and once it’s done you wish you’d taken the leap sooner.
If you want to achieve anything in life then you’ve got to take a leap of faith. Planning, preparation, and belief can only take you so far in your journey before you reach the point of hopelessness. You’ll reach a point where you can’t visualise the ending anymore and you consider stopping. This is exactly when you take the leap of faith.
What is a Leap of Faith?
A leap of faith is doing something that you have no idea the outcome of. It’s rushing headfirst into the unknown, having no idea if it’ll work out, and just believing in yourself that you can get it done.
It’s believing in yourself when there’s no proof or evidence that what you’re attempting is possible or will even work. When the world tells you that it’s not possible it’s your unwilling to give up that drives you forwards. It is a strong belief in yourself and your abilities to go through any challenge regardless of whether you can see the outcome or not.
That’s what a leap of faith is.
How to Take a Leap of Faith
Whatever your goal is, and at whatever stage you’re at, you’re going to need to take a leap of faith at some point. Luckily, the core principles behind jumping into the unknown are often quite easy and you can plan for many of the challenges.
You’ve first got to start with a plan. What do you want to achieve and how do you think you’ll get there/ what will you do to get there. By having a plan, once you start losing motivation or focus you’ll be able to refer back to the plan to know what to do next. This’ll help when it comes to stages when your first attempts have failed and you’re feeling lost.
Secondly, you’ve got to believe in yourself and your abilities because you’re the only thing that you can rely on when you have no idea what comes next. Develop a deep understanding of yourself, your abilities, your weaknesses, and your goal and then factor these into your plan. For example, if your goal is to quit smoking and you know that you’ll be unable to resist a smoke when you’re with friends, then don’t see your friends for a few days.
Finally, just keep going but always refer back to the original plan. There will come a time when you don’t know what to do next or if the choice you’re making is a good one. It’s at this time that you can refer back to the plan and review whether what you’re about to do falls in line with your original goals.
3 Ways to Take a Leap of Faith in Real Life
I’m going to cover 3 common scenarios where you’ll need to take a leap of faith in order to achieve your goals.
Taking a Leap of Faith when Quitting Smoking/Vaping/Nicotine
Quitting smoking and realizing that I had to take a leap of faith was actually what got me thinking about how we all need to face the unknown whenever we want to achieve a goal in life.
Nicotine is a powerful drug and when you attempt to quit ingesting it you will be met with a few barriers. The first will be the inability to imagine yourself not smoking/vaping which immediately makes the attempt to quit seem worthless. Secondly, you’ll think about the good times you’ve had while smoking/vaping (such as at the bar) and believe that you’ll be losing those good feelings forever if you stop. Thirdly, you’ll face really uncomfortable withdrawals which will require all of your willpower to fight off.
When it comes to quitting smoking/vaping, the leap of faith comes at the start because you really cannot imagine yourself not smoking/vaping. From the moment you take your last hit, you have no idea what’s going to come next. You are walking straight into the unknown with no idea if you can even achieve it. It takes 3-5 days for the withdrawals to stop, and you have no idea how long you’ll last, if you’ll give in on day 3, or if your life will be better or worse off afterwards.
And on a personal note, from my journey quitting nicotine, the withdrawals do hurt, it will suck, and you will be badly depressed for a few days, but it gets better. I look back now and wonder why I ever smoked but know that if I can get through the withdrawals then I can get through any challenge that life throws at me.
Taking a Leap of Faith When Leaving a Job That You Hate
I’m sure we’ve all been stuck in a job that we’ve desperately wanted to leave but had no hope of everything working out smoothly. If you’re lucky you’ll find another job to walk straight into but, and this is unfortunately what most of us what have to, most people will have to quit and hope that another job comes their way.
Unlike smoking, which often has no immediate impacts, leaving your job will leave you without an income which is difficult if you have rent and other bills to pay. The first step for leaving a job is to be prepared by having an emergency fund and as much covered as you can. Most experts will say that you should be prepared to last 3 months without an income.
Secondly, you need to have a deep understanding of why you want to leave your current job and what you want to do for work next. I use a spider diagram for this and break down each section as much as I can so I can evaluate whether the issue is with me or with the company and whether something can be done about it. For example, you might dislike the work you’re doing because it’s boring, at which point you should figure out what exactly makes it boring (such as is it just repetitive and has no creativity or thought behind it). This way you can avoid running into the same issue again in the future.
Finally, you’ve got to walk away from safety. This is the stage where you leave your job and take the leap of faith into the unknown. You can apply to jobs all day long, but you don’t know who will get back to you and who won’t. You’ve just got to keep applying and try to find what you want before the money runs out.
Taking a Leap of Faith when Going to the Gym
If you want to change the way you look then you’ve not only got a lot of hard, sweaty, difficult, and painful work ahead of you, but you’ve also got to remain consistent for a long time. It is not an easy journey and you’ve got to have a strong belief in yourself that you can struggle through a workout even when you really don’t want to.
Unlike every other example, going to the gym, or working out in general, will show results but you’ll still have to fight against not wanting to put yourself through the effort. As the saying goes; it doesn’t get easier, you just get stronger. Unfortunately, you will still hit the wall at some point and question your motives, the journey, and the end goal. This is where you’ve just got to keep going.
Firstly, have a specific goal in mind and then break that goal down into achievable steps. For example, if you want to lose 2 stone then that’s 13kg you’ve got to lose. Aim to lose 1kg at a time and keep working to lose another kg and so forth. This way, when you start hitting obstacles, your goal is never impossibly out of reach.
Secondly, plan out as much as you can in advance and make sure to stick to what you plan. For example, if you’re going to hit the gym every other day then make sure on those days you’re at the gym. Meal prep also helps as this way you can’t be easily tempted to eat junk as your food is already prepared for you.
Finally, just keep going no matter what. You will likely break off from your planned meals and order takeaways at some point and feel terrible about it afterwards. When things go wrong, just pick yourself up and try again the next day.
How to Identify what’s Holding You Back
It doesn’t matter how strong your willpower is, or how dedicated you are, at some point in your journey you will doubt yourself and think about quitting. This is why you should identity what’s holding you back in life, or what could be a potential obstacle, and deal or have a plan or place for that.
As mentioned earlier, if you’re going to smoke when you see your friends then set up a system, so you won’t give in. This could be chewing gum, or telling your friends what you’re doing so they don’t smoke around you, or some other method to make sure that you don’t quit when you encounter the situation.
There’s normally 2 sections when it comes to factors that stop you from going after your goals: things that are immediate issues, and future potential issues.
How to Identify Immediate Issues and Deal with Them
Immediate issues are the factors such as rent, bills, and anything else that you will immediately face once you take action. In smoking, this is the withdrawal symptoms you’re about to face, and in working out this is the hard work you know you’ll have to do.
A quick Google search will often reveal the immediate issues you’ll face and from there you can start making plans for dealing with those issues. For example, if you have bills to pay then save up enough money first before you leave your job. You could also have back up plans in place in-case your encounter further issues, such as taking up part-time delivery work if you get into month 2 without a job.
The majority of immediate issues will have simple solutions that you can easily prepare for. For example, if nicotine withdrawals give you a headache then you can take tablets to deal with the headache. For me, I had a problem-solution table where I would plan all of my solutions if I encountered a problem. In the moment, you can be hazy (especially if quitting nicotine), so having the list beforehand always helps.
Immediate issues will be the most likely to make you quit so being able to deal with them is crucial to achieving your goals. Identify as many as you can before you start your journey and when you do encounter them they don’t be able to stop you.
How to Identity Future Potential Issues and Deal with Them
Future issues are factors such as not being able to find a job after 3 months, losing motivation, running out of money, and anything that could come up a few months down the line. They usually come after a system or routine changes, such as needing to eat more throughout the day, that then causes issues elsewhere.
Identifying future issues can be challenging as most searches on Google will only tell you about the short term or beginning of the journey when you’re looking for information around the middle. Quora will be your best bet for finding stories that cover the whole journey and Reddit could be useful too.
The trick here is to identify what the issues are so you can then find out how to deal with them. You might not know that if you run every other day you might develop runners’ knee or shin pain but if you see someone sharing their experience then you can plan for when you do encounter runners’ knee. This way, not only will you know what the problem is when you encounter it, but it’ll also not be so bad that it makes you quit.
This is also where taking a leap of faith is so important because you will encounter so many issues that you could never prepare for along the way. You’ve just got to keep going and deal with any issues as you encounter them.
In Summary
- A leap of faith is jumping into the unknown with no proof or knowledge of whether you will be successful
- You must first plan everything out, including potential problems you’ll encounter, and then have solutions for those problems, before you take a leap of faith
- Planning is the key to success, if you can plan for problems you’ll encounter then when you do encounter them you’ll know how to deal with them
- You will lose motivation at some point and think about quitting. It’s at this point that you take a leap of faith and keep going
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