Principle #14 in Jack Canfield’s book “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” is “Just Lean Into It.” This reminded me of a great truth.
“You don’t have to get it perfect.
“You just have to get started”
In the Believe It’s Possible post (on Principle #4) I mentioned my goal to increase sales of my CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead Study Guide from 25 copies a month to more than 1,000 books a month.
I didn’t know how I’d do so, but I knew it was possible. I decided to get started and I leaned into the goal. I kept the goal focused in my mind and I took action almost every day.
Just Lean Into It and the Path Will Appear
Whatever your goal or passion, if you just lean into it, you’ll find that opportunities will begin to open up.
Jack talks about Jana Stanfield in this chapter. Jana wanted to sing from as early as she could remember. Ultimately, she decided to lean into her dream and start pursuing it. She took some singing lessons, started doing some weekend gigs, and ultimately found herself in Nashville seeking what she thought was the ultimate dream – a recording contract.
She didn’t get the elusive recording contract, but a better path appeared.
After some deep soul searching, she realized that the recording contract wasn’t really what she wanted. Instead, she wanted to combine music, comedy, and storytelling to provide entertainment and motivation to others. She decided “Where two or more are gathered, I will bring my guitar” and she played and sang for the enjoyment out it.
Soon, people began asking her for her recordings. While she didn’t have a recording contract, it turns out that all her time in Nashville provided the perfect training for her. Looking back, she realized that she learned everything she needed to record her own material.
So she began recording and fulfilling the requests from others. I’ve seen her live and love her music – it it is lively, inspiring, and catchy. You can buy some of it here. She also hosts some amazing transformational travel trips as “volun-tours,” such as her recent “Bali-Laugh” trip to Bali.
All of this opened up to Jana simply because she began learning into her dream of singing.
Just Start and Lean Into It
I frequently hear from people asking me if they should pursue some certification or asking what certification they should pursue. While I typically give links to some posts, I almost always mention that the most important thing is to start. By starting, they’ll gain some understanding of what they like (and what they don’t like).
- Some people love subnetting and calculating routing tables
- Some people love solving challenges with programming
- Some people love deep analysis of logs to discover what happened, when, and how
- Some people love analyzing and troubleshooting deep networking problems
- Some people love providing one-on-one assistance to users
By starting and really leaning into your dreams and passions, your path will begin to open up to you, just as it opened up to Jana.
For example, you might want to work within info-security. However, that field is broad. By starting with a basic security certification such as Security+, you can gain a broad insight into the field and gain some insight into what your next path will be.
If you’re interested, here are some links that I sometimes give to people asking for career-advice:
- What is the Best Security Certification Path
This post identifies a couple of different certification paths depending on your level of experience. - IT Certification Path for Network Administrators
I divided certification paths for network administrators into three different categories including foundational, Cisco, and Microsoft - 7 Steps to Security+ (SY0-401) Certification
If you want to start with the Security+ certification, you can use these steps as a path to get it. - Career Advice for Elvis
No, not that Elvis. This Elvis is from Bosnia and seemed to need some advice beyond technical certifications and I gave him an idea of how he could identify what he wanted to have or be in the future.
About This Post
I’ve been learning from Jack Canfield (of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame) since 2008. I credit much of my success (including authoring or co-authoring more than 40 books) to applying principles in my life that he teaches. I’m currently going through his book “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” covering one principle a week.
Here’s a link to other musing’s on Jack Canfield’s Success Principles.
| You Can Do Anything | 7 Life Lessons Powerful Principles for Living a Fulfilled Life |
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