s just to reach the same level in a new career that I’m at now!” And you know what… that may well be true. But the time it takes you is of no consequence. Those five years are going to pass anyway. You can spend them in your current career, or you can invest them in transitioning to a new career. It’s merely a matter of substituting one version of those five years for another. Which version would put you in a better situation five years hence?

When I wanted to move away from computer game deve

If you found yourself unemployed today, would you want the job you have now? Would you be eager to apply for it?

What about your career as a whole? If you’d never worked in your current industry, would you consciously choose to work in it now?

Many people just fall into their current line of work without ever consciously choosing it. For example, I fell into computer programming early in life. I took a BASIC programming class when I was 10 years old, and I loved it. From there it was a gradual progression to a double-major in computer science and math. My father was an aerospace engineer, and my mother was a college math professor, so there was certainly no family resistance to this path. I don’t ever recall seriously considering any other majors. Perhaps I was just destined to be a computer programmer.

It wasn’t destiny though. It was merely momentum. There was very little conscious choice along this path. For the most part it was the path of least resistance.

But the path of least resistance is usually not the path of best results, despite the musings of spiritual gurus who try desperately to paint it as such. Just because unconscious physical objects follow the path of least resistance doesn’t make it the correct choice for conscious human beings.

Your consciousness gives you the option of choosing a path where you will meet resistance and then overcoming that resistance. You can take the path of least resistance and avoid obstacles, or you can choose to work against resistance and grow stronger.

In terms of career choices, you aren’t limited to doing what you’ve been doing all along just because it’s convenient for you. You also have the option of doing something entirely different. Even if you don’t possess the skills to qualify to do something else, you do have the option of acquiring those skills.

People are often held back by focusing too heavily on the effort it would take to develop new skills. People say, “It would take me five years just to reach the same level in a new career that I’m at now!” And you know what… that may well be true. But the time it takes you is of no consequence. Those five years are going to pass anyway. You can spend them in your current career, or you can invest them in transitioning to a new career. It’s merely a matter of substituting one version of those five years for another. Which version would put you in a better situation five years hence?

When I wanted to move away from computer game devel

radual progression to a double-major in computer science and math. My father was an aerospace engineer, and my mother was a college math professor, so there was certainly no family resistance to this path. I don’t ever recall seriously considering any other majors. Perhaps I was just destined to be a computer programmer.

It wasn’t destiny though. It was merely momentum. There was very little conscious choice along this path. For the most part it was the path of least resistance.

But the path of least resistance is usually not the path of best results, despite the musings of spiritual gurus who try desperately to paint it as such. Just because unconscious physical objects follow the path of least resistance doesn’t make it the correct choice for conscious human beings.

Your consciousness gives you the option of choosing a path where you will meet resistance and then overcoming that resistance. You can take the path of least resistance and avoid obstacles, or you can choose to work against resistance and grow stronger.

In terms of career choices, you aren’t limited to doing what you’ve been doing all along just because it’s convenient for you. You also have the option of doing something entirely different. Even if you don’t possess the skills to qualify to do something else, you do have the option of acquiring those skills.

People are often held back by focusing too heavily on the effort it would take to develop new skills. People say, “It would take me five years just to reach the same level in a new career that I’m at now!” And you know what… that may well be true. But the time it takes you is of no consequence. Those five years are going to pass anyway. You can spend them in your current career, or you can invest them in transitioning to a new career. It’s merely a matter of substituting one version of those five years for another. Which version would put you in a better situation five years hence?

When I wanted to move away from computer game deve

ath of least resistance is usually not the path of best results, despite the musings of spiritual gurus who try desperately to paint it as such. Just because unconscious physical objects follow the path of least resistance doesn’t make it the correct choice for conscious human beings.

Your consciousness gives you the option of choosing a path where you will meet resistance and then overcoming that resistance. You can take the path of least resistance and avoid obstacles, or you can choose to work against resistance and grow stronger.

In terms of career choices, you aren’t limited to doing what you’ve been doing all along just because it’s convenient for you. You also have the option of doing something entirely different. Even if you don’t possess the skills to qualify to do something else, you do have the option of acquiring those skills.

People are often held back by focusing too heavily on the effort it would take to develop new skills. People say, “It would take me five years just to reach the same level in a new career that I’m at now!” And you know what… that may well be true. But the time it takes you is of no consequence. Those five years are going to pass anyway. You can spend them in your current career, or you can invest them in transitioning to a new career. It’s merely a matter of substituting one version of those five years for another. Which version would put you in a better situation five years hence?

When I wanted to move away from computer game deve

rk against resistance and grow stronger.

In terms of career choices, you aren’t limited to doing what you’ve been doing all along just because it’s convenient for you. You also have the option of doing something entirely different. Even if you don’t possess the skills to qualify to do something else, you do have the option of acquiring those skills.

People are often held back by focusing too heavily on the effort it would take to develop new skills. People say, “It would take me five years just to reach the same level in a new career that I’m at now!” And you know what… that may well be true. But the time it takes you is of no consequence. Those five years are going to pass anyway. You can spend them in your current career, or you can invest them in transitioning to a new career. It’s merely a matter of substituting one version of those five years for another. Which version would put you in a better situation five years hence?

When I wanted to move away from computer game deve

s just to reach the same level in a new career that I’m at now!” And you know what… that may well be true. But the time it takes you is of no consequence. Those five years are going to pass anyway. You can spend them in your current career, or you can invest them in transitioning to a new career. It’s merely a matter of substituting one version of those five years for another. Which version would put you in a better situation five years hence?

When I wanted to move away from computer game development and towards working in the field of personal development, I had to deal with these same mental barriers. I thought to myself, “But I’m already very good at what I do. My position is safe and secure. How can I just abandon all I’ve worked for and start over with something new? I can’t just get up on a stage and start making a living as a professional speaker. My speaking skills aren’t good enough, and I know next to nothing about the speaking business. If I even attempt such a big change, my income is certain to go down in the beginning. It’s going to take me years to build the skills, credibility, and content just to reach the same level in that profession that I’m at now with my game business. That’s crazy. Why should I even start?”

But the idea that the time is going to pass anyway really got to me. I framed it as a choice between spending the next five years one way and spending them another way. The past was the past, and the momentum that it produced up to this point was irrelevant. What mattered was the choice in front of me. I could form a pretty clear picture of what the next five years running my games business would be like. And I could also get a general idea of what the next five years starting a new personal development business would be like. Even though the day-by-day details would be impossible to predict, the bigger parts were predictable enough. On the games path, I’d continue publishing games. Duh. It wasn’t hard to get a sense of where I’d end up in five more years. And on the personal development path, I’d be writing and speaking and producing info products, but this would require a lot of time up front working for very little income. It also wasn’t hard to get a feel for what the resulting business might look like in five years.

When I asked myself which five-year outcome I preferred, it was the personal development business. That probably doesn’t surprise you, nor did it surprise me. But what did surprise me was that I also could imagine that