But one thing I had learned from these tapes was that often all we have to do is ask a better question.

… yet studies show that people who make emotion-based decisions actually tend to be far happier than those who make logic-based decisions.

You have to apply a work ethic alongside your voice, and then believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself no one else will.

I like to say, “Show me how you spend your time, and I'll tell you what your priorities are.”

Start simple: list all the goals you'd like to hit that relate to your jump. Then cross off all the ones that you aren't spending time on.

Don't avoid jumping because of the illusion of a stability you think you have. Because that, too, someday will change.

Any jump planning includes three common component:

• financial planning
• pre-jump practice, and
• safety-net sewing

Putting words to why I wanted to jump, how I was going to do it, and where I was going to go delivered the confidence I needed to believe this jump could actually be made.

But making the big athletic advances actually started in my head. I began repeating this statement: “I am a professional athlete.” A number of behaviors followed from that.

Andy played the role of the godfather choosing his words carefully: “ Plan your jump as if you're climbing a ladder. Plan the rungs on the ladder. Set up a few concrete milestones and event. But leave out planning the rest. Embrace the space between the rings.”

This is the trick I learned: mine your personal network for anyone who may know somebody who knows anything on the subject. Then go meet that person, and after you've talked together, ask, “Do you know anyone else who can help me?”

I had been building my company for more than a year, and we had raised some money. It was more of a staged, planned transition than it was an impulsive leap. That was critical. I think it's the best way to make oneof these types of jumps - create a plan, make some sort of safety net, get halfway started on the idea, and then go. A jump doesn't have to start from scratch. Actually it shouldn't.

The most wanted resource on earth is human intention: for any idea, you need a system to filter that early excitement and emotional momentum into action. I find that documenting ideas on paper often creates that filter: I use the writing to articulate my ideas to others.

The most critical note that I wrote to myself was: “Those who succeed do not have the privilege of escaping hopelessness; they simply endure the whimsical whisperings at them. There is a way to make it work; you just have to find it.” I read that to myself every single day. If you read something like that to yourself enough times, you sort of embody it. That's my hope at least.

Before you jump from what you're doing, remember that you can do two things at once - and you should. I don't recommend taking jumps off cliffs.

Every time I make a career move, I try to think ahead five or ten years and ask myself, “How will I feel about this decision looking back on it?”

As my old boss told me, a jump maybe uncertain, but planned right, it doesn't have a massive downside.

“When you jump from your job and your life here and unpack all other distractions, take note of what makes you happy — truly happy — and remember what that is when the distractions come back and life returns to being busy.”

Ironically, jumping to follow your passion requires much more discipline than it does passion. Passion wears off after a few months.