Quantum Leap: an abrupt change, sudden increase, or dramatic advance

Sometimes trying harder isn’t the answer.  The power of compounding and accumulating small effort is undeniable and can produce astounding results over time.  That sometimes means a lot of effort.  Sometimes you can ascend a long way up the stairs one step at a time.  Eventually you are going to reach a point you cannot get past.  You may even discover that you are ascending the wrong staircase.  Sometimes you will find you are in a two story building and after going up one flight of stairs you can go no further.

Quantum leaps are possible in many areas of our lives, but we won’t experience them as long as we stay stuck in our familiar comfort zones.  A quantum leap does not occur when you are tweaking or pushing harder.  They occur when you back off and open your mind to completely new possibilities.  Quantum leaps are risky and scary.  You must leave your familiar zone and try something so dramatically different that you create new boundaries.

My Leap

When I started this blog I made a quantum leap.  I’d never written anything other than emails and business correspondence.  All of a sudden I was exposing myself through my writing to the whole world; I wish .  It might be a flop.  I might embarrass myself.  I would be open to to criticism and ridicule.  It was scary.

Becoming Competent

Over the last 6 months or so I have become what Seth Godin calls competent.  I’m in a comfort zone.  My subscribers and traffic have been steadily growing.  I’m pleased with the results.  I’ve become consistent and predictable.  I’ve become competent at being a blogger.

But I’ve also become a little restless.  Am I in a dip?  Do I need to just push through it to the other side in order to find that great success?  Or am I just going round and round in a Cul-De-Sac, destined to be just another mediocre blogger whose blog is eventually abandoned because it rand out of gas and died.  I’m I the fly at the windowpane? Do I need to make another quantum leap?  How do I know?

I don’t want to give up on a good thing just before the breakthrough, but I don’t want to fall into a rut and spend the rest of my days grinding the tracks deeper and deeper either.

I just read what I wrote and realized it sounds so depressing.  It’s NOT!  I’m not at all depressed or unhappy.  I’m not agonizing or sweating over it at all.  I’ve just been asking myself those questions lately.  They’ve been rolling around in my head.  I’ve reached a point where I need to make a decision.  I know I can’t make the wrong choice, so I’m just going to continue to ponder it for a bit and then choose.

What About You?

I didn’t intend for this article to be about me, not at all.  It went in a different direction than I had planned.  Those are the questions I’m asking myself and I’ve decided to leave them there and share them with you in the hope that you ask them of yourself.

Life is short.  It may be time for you to make a quantum leap.  Or it may be time for you to continue building up your account with compound interest.  Only you can answer that question.  Remember, no regrets.

Making a Quantum Leap

• Stop trying harder and look for something simple.  A simple and elegant solution is a perfect way to make a quantum leap.
• You aren’t building on previous steps.  You are making a fundamental change.  You are making a breakthrough leap.  Back off the struggle and let something fresh come into view.
• Forget “common sense”.  You can’t do what makes sense or what is usual.  If you do what is common and usual you will get common and usual results.
• The how of the quantum leap isn’t obvious or you would have done it already.  Let go of your limiting beliefs.  You need new boundaries, ones you can’t even imagine right now.
• Break out of your routines.  Find something new, something completely different.  Your routines will keep you where you are at.  What’s working now is what keeps you on your current plane.  If you want to make a quantum leap you have to do something different, something improbable.
• Quantum leaps are risky.  There is a significant risk that it won’t work out, but who cares?  You just make another leap until you find one that does work.
• You are going to be uncomfortable.  If you are comfortable, you didn’t take a quantum leap.  No matter what happens you will learn a great deal.  You may discover something wonderful and new about yourself.
• Let the answer come to you.  Get out of your own way and it will happen.
• You can’t figure it all out ahead of time.  You have to take a leap and make adjustments as you go.  It’s going to be ambiguous and chaotic.  It’s going to be wild, fun, and scary all at the same time.  I’m a big believer in just doing and then figuring it out as you go.
• Leap.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.