The more you struggle, the more you imagine a big change is just around the corner.

We tell ourselves that change is hard, that it only comes from effort and discipline and resolve.  We worry and plan and steel ourselves for the long haul.

It’s exhausting, but necessary.

Or is it?

As Chip and Dan Heath say in their book, Switch: How to Change when Change is Hard, you need to deal with three things when you want to make a change: your emotions, your rational decision-making, and the situation you operate in.

Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?

And because it sounds complicated, we often make it complicated.  We try to solve the problem by staging a dramatic struggle (and make no mistake, it is largely an act, though an unconscious one).

We announce flashy resolutions, we have long internal arguments about the importance of willpower, then sink into pitiful despair when we fail to make sustained progress.

What if there was a single exercise that could help you make a big change in just a few hours?

Let me introduce you to Steve, who went from flirting with a mid-life crisis to getting those butterfly feelings of excitement in his stomach for the first time in years–all in just one week.  And then I’ll introduce you to Jennie, who transformed herself from welfare mom to CEO.

When I was 27, I left my reporting job to backpack through Africa.

The trip itself was amazing. I rode a camel in Timbuktu, discovered the howling lemur in Madagascar and bonded with a polygamous family in Cameroon. Those six months changed how I see the world.

But the coolest result of my career break was totally unrelated to travel: it catapulted me into a Life of Awesome.

Successfully taking that one big risk helped me realize I should take more. So I decided to write a book, a travel memoir. Then, two months ago, I left my day job to pursue my business full time. Now I’m launching an e-guide called How to Take a Career Break to Travel, daring to make my project public. I probably wouldn’t have made any of those moves if I hadn’t gone on my solo backpacking trip. Because of that trip, I now know the potential that lies behind each (scary) risk.

What I’m getting at is this: Once you’ve taken one leap, you’ll itch to take another. And another. And another. Once you’ve followed your dream once, you will want to do it again. You might even recognize or create big opportunities you wouldn’t have seen before.

In a response to a recent post on Everyday Bright, Cara summed up the crux of her problem

I’m a programmer at best and a meeting-attender at worst. It’s a B+ day job most of the time, and for awhile, I was content with that. I’ve had much worse.

But the more I’ve thought about the shortness of life, the more I’ve realized this is not what I want to be doing. If I was diagnosed with cancer, the first thing I’d do is quit my job.

It’s far from terrible, but it’s not where my passion lies, and now that I’ve found something that is, it seems like a huge waste not to do as much of it as I can.

It’s a problem many of us, including myself, can identify with.  What sets Cara apart is her approach to solving the problem.

In short: when Cara decided she wasn’t going to settle for an okay job, she also decided she wouldn’t settle for some run-of-the-mill business idea. 

This is what Everyday Bright is all about.  Not only am I here to help those willing to help themselves, I’m hoping you’ll share some love with fellow luminary Cara Stein.

I can’t think of a more powerful way to reward those willing to take the risk and inspire others to do the same.  Here’s her story.