Here at The Great Break we’re fascinated by reinvention – how people reinvent themselves to create new and exciting lives – morph their (new) careers around their passions. After all that is very much how and where this platform was first born.

Bryan Teare is not only a relevant case study then, but for those itching to make a change, a great coach and motivator. On the other end of the scale, the guy who went from top student to successful engineer and then morphed into a fitness trainer and now life coach (all thanks to CrossFit – read more of his story here), is solidly grounded and provides good insights for those who shouldn’t make a change.

In the first of a series of articles on life evolutions, we quizzed Bryan on the first steps to take if you’re looking to reinvent yourself.

1. Don’t just quit

Don’t just quit – don’t just jump ship like I did – without another option. It sounds sexy and it looks cool on social media, but really it creates a lot of stress. So what I would advise – if you are in a job you don’t really enjoy – see that as a blessing, you now have no pressure on yourself to start your own thing. Look at your current employer as an investor in your side business, because if you jump ship and start from nothing, and suddenly that first month hits where there is no income and you have to basically hustle to make things happen things can get stressful.

Whereas when you are in your (current) job you can spend one hour, two, three before or after work and work on your own thing. That way you get it up to a point where it is making income, before you just quit.

2. Focus

I mentioned the hours per day, or week (or whatever you have) to put in. What that limited time does is push you to really focus on the most important thing(s) in your new venture.

Here is fun exercise to do: Ask yourself, ‘if I had only two hours to spend a week on my business, what would sort of be the 80/20 of activities to do in that time?’ Suddenly things like updating your website or posting on social media, become a lot less important, whereas creating something that people would pay money for, becomes the biggest thing.

3. Make more time

Once you’re a little way along putting in the time on your new venture, take it a step further and put in some leave. Take a week’s leave from your current employer (if you have that much left over) and rather than just spending it on going somewhere or wasting that time, do an experiment… Look at what your life would be – what it would feel and look like – if you were doing your own thing.

So wake-up at whatever time you would do if you were working for yourself, maybe for you that is 7am instead of 6, or whatever. Make your breakfast and do your morning routine, go to a coffee shop or co-working space and take your laptop and do something that would contribute to your own business during this week.

Basically test what it would be like to work for yourself and on your own time. See if it is something you enjoy and, if not, then maybe the self-employed route is not for you. And, that is totally okay.

*Next installment: Finding the ‘sweet spot’ – should everyone be pursuing their passion as a career?

Website: www.bryanteare.com

Written by: Bryan Teare