“Our circle of comfort is surrounded by a wall of fear. There are few fears greater than leaving the place where we are comfortable , but there are few  rewards more meaningful and purposeful.” 

Those are the words of ROAR founder Joe Sturniolo, and form one of ROAR’s 13 “lessons to be learned” for people who want to discover, awaken and stir to action the “Lion Within.”

That fear can be crippling. For me, it brings to mind the first time, as a nine-year-old, I nervously climbed to the top of the high dive board, looked down, and wondered if I would survive the fall. But I stepped off. And I survived.

Twenty-five years later, I had the same feeling of trepidation as I walked down the corporate hallway to tell the president of the bank I worked for that I was quitting to start my own PR and marketing agency.

I was leaving my comfort circle, a secure job as VP in charge of marketing for one of the state’s largest banks. I had perks galore - a very comfortable salary,a  company car, five weeks of vacation, stock options, and a job lots of people envied.  And I had a young family to take care of.

But I nonetheless stepped into the president’s office and, with tightness in my gut, stepped off the high dive.  I survived and went on to do what fulfilled me and stirred my passion - not without pain sometimes, and not without new fears. But doing what I was meant to do.

To me, that’s how you summon the courage to break through your wall of fear.  You close your eyes to what you fear.  Then you just step off.

Herminia Ibarra, a professor of organizational behavior in France, authored a book back in 2003 called “Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career,” in which he proposes a number of unconventional strategies for taking your career in a new direction.  Being from France, home of Sartre, Camus and other existentialists, it’s not surpising that he exhibits a predisposition to act first, think later.

Forget self-assessment tests, he says. Don’t let others try to fit you into a neatly defined box.

Act first, then reflect.

Don’t over-analyze. Step out and pursue a path. See how it feels.  If it stirs your passion, go farther down that path.  If not, take another. 

Abandon rational analysis and pursue what your heart tells you is true. You’ll know it when  the feeling grabs hold that you are doing the thing you were born to do, making the contribution to the world you  were destined to make . 

Dan Christopherson is an original member of the ROAR team

and co-authored The Caterpillar that Roared

with Joe Sturniolo.