Law of Two Feet

Hey everyone,

I’m Regan Smith, the new Project Assistant for Works Progress. I’ll be working here part-time helping out with communications and program-based work. In my non-Works Progress life I’m a freelance writer and the Co-Founder and Editorial Director of Paper Darts, a Minneapolis-based literary and arts magazine. If you have a pressing need to know more about me, please feel free to check out my half-finished personal website, follow me on twitter @regglandsbest, or send me an email at regan(at)worksprogress.org. Neat!

In a futile effort to catch up 1/100^th of the way to the Works Progress genius, I’ve been doing a lot of reading from some of Shanai and Colin’s favorite books. Though I’m generally not one for inspirational quotes (except for obvious classics like “Live. Laugh. Love.” and “Dance like nobody’s watching.”), the text that really resonated with me and seemed most apt for this post is from Harrison Owen’s Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World.

“It is a common experience, shared by all of us, that when we encounter situations where we are neither learning nor contributing, we leave—if not physically then mentally and emotionally. It might appear that sitting in the corner inert is the proper thing to do, but our continued (physical) presence is rarely if ever inert. We impact the conversation, and usually in a negative fashion. Our bored, frustrated demeanor spews negative energy over the entire affair.

Much better that we actually allow our feet to follow our hearts and minds and just leave.”

As someone who recently quit my secure full-time job to pursue a relatively unstable creative professional life (freelancing, yo), this quote hit home. Much more than simply being a less cheeseball way of saying “follow your dreams,” the Law of Two Feet touches on something I think very few of us take into consideration before a major life change. When trying to decide whether to quit an unfulfilling job or time-consuming creative project, most of our thinking goes into how our current situation affects us—it’s draining, stressful, dissatisfying, management sucks, etc. But rarely do we consider how our feelings about our current situation affect those we’re working with, and even more rarely do we let that factor into our decision to stay or go.

Making a major career shift is usually complicated and always really effing scary, there’s no two ways about it. But maybe if we focus more on the negative ramifications—both for ourselves and for those around us—of staying in our current situation and less on the fear of the unknown if we leave, we’d all be a little bit more inclined to take a chance and make positive changes in our lives.

I’m pumped to be contributing to Works Progress, excited to feel invigorated and inspired by my job again, and so, so proud that I finally allowed my feet to follow my heart and mind and took the plunge.

Here’s to all the other people out there who are doing the same!

-Regan