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Your financial goals feel like a big leap away, but really it's just a bunch of baby steps that together make a big difference. When you open a time checking account, you're one step closer to a better financial future with no maintenance fees, fee free overdraft up to 200 bucks or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Making progress has never been easier. And if you ever want to access your pay before payday, you can use my pay to get up to 500 bucks of your pay before payday with no mandatory fees or interest with learn more@chime.com helpwanted. You know I hate fees, especially overdraft fees. I remember when I was in my 20s and I overdrafted for the first time with an old bank. I didn't even know that I had overdraft protection turned on, and that protection would mean a $35 fee on my $5 latte. But Chime allows you to overdraft up to 200 bucks with no fees because they get it. Make progress toward a better financial future with Chime. Open your account in two minutes@chime.com helpwanted that's chime.com helpwanted Chime feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank NA or Stride Bank NA members FDIC Spot Me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Fees apply at out of network ATMs. MyPay eligibility requirements apply. Credit limits range from 20 to $500. A $2 fee applies to get funds instantly. Chime checking account required. Go to chime.com disclosures for details. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game or. Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com, progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

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This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.

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Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. I'm On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

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And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

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And it starts now.

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You're being cautious. You want to do something, but you're waiting for the right moment. You keep telling yourself, I need to be careful. I can't ruin what I already have like maybe you have a new job opportunity, but you're hesitating because you're afraid you'll lose the security that you fought hard to build. Or you want more from someone. Maybe it's a favor or a partnership or a relationship, but you don't want to risk your friendly connection or you want to create something, I don't know, writing videos, whatever. But you're afraid it won't be perfect and that you'll embarrass yourself. Today, I want to help you move forward. And to do this, I'm going to teach you the messy couch principle. It is a new way to assess your problem and then find the confidence to act by boldly. It is time to stop hesitating and to see what's on the other side of action. But first, let's talk about that couch. When I was a kid, I would often visit my grandma in her retirement community. She liked nice things, so her living room was full of stuff that I could not touch. Glass vases and works of art. And so on the centerpiece was a fancy couch, which, like many people of her generation, she had wrapped in plastic. The that way no visitors, especially children, could spill something or scuff it up. I don't know if you've seen photos of these plastic wrapped couches, but if not, go Google them. They are really weird. They're also exactly what you would imagine. Just like imagine a couch, a nice couch, or sometimes not a nice couch. And then imagine it shrink wrapped in plastic as if it is, I don't know, like a thing that you would pick up off the shelf at a dollar store or something. It's really weird and shiny. As a kid, my grandma's couch intrigued me. It was funny and shiny and it made noises when I sat. But as an adult, this couch has become a puzzle. Because here's what I wonder. A fancy couch covered in plastic isn't a fancy couch anymore. It's just a crappy plastic couch. And what is the point of that? My grandma isn't here to answer that question, but I think we should all ask it ourselves, because we do versions of this too. You have ambitions and ideas wrapped in plastic. You have people wrapped in plastic. You have career plans wrapped in plastic. These are the things that you talk about or think about but do not actually act upon for fear of changing them. In some way, the plastic is preserving something's potential at the expense of its actual realistic value. So what happens if we remove the plastic? Well, let's think about the couch. Imagine that my Grandma removed the plastic. What is the worst that could have happened? Let's see. Well, her friends might have sat on it and maybe spilled wine. Or her grandchildren might have climbed around and scuffed it up. Or the cleaners might have needed to be called in the meantime, the couch would have felt softer without that plastic and more comfortable, too. Every day she could have sat there and enjoyed her fancy couch in all its splendor until, yes, over the course of many years, she might need a new one. Was that worth the trade off of a couch forever encased in plastic? I don't think so. This is the premise of the messy couch principle. It is a simple way to evaluate risk. And it goes like this. Are we happier with the safe and sanitized version of our lives or with the messiness that comes with taking action? Here's a good way to assess that for yourself. It's the messy couch test. You know what you have preserved in plastic, right? It is the job you've held for years, or the idea you've never tested, or the person you've never truly gotten personal with. Now, ask yourself these two questions. Number one, if I act, what is the worst that can happen? And number two, if I don't act, what am I left with? That's it. That's the whole exercise. I'm not asking you to consider the best case scenario because, well, we aren't motivated by best case scenarios. They might not happen. We don't know. Instead, we are motivated by fear of loss. Decades of research have confirmed loss aversion theory. Our human brains are programmed to protect against loss more than to seek gain. The messy couch principle forces you to ask, which bad option actually contains less loss? The answer might surprise you. I, for example, have many messy couches. And here's a big one. When I was 28, I was living with my longtime girlfriend in Boston. It was a good relationship, but I knew it wasn't the right one, and yet I was afraid to break it off. So it went on for years. Then I got a job offer in New York which would provide the career advancement that I craved. But my girlfriend did not want to move. I almost turned the job down so that I could preserve that okay relationship. But then I basically asked, number one, if I leave, what's the worst that can happen? And the answer was, we break up and I spend a while awkwardly dating and building a new life in New York. And number two, if I stay, what am I left with? And the answer was, I remain in Boston, where there are fewer career Opportunities for me and I stay in an imperfect relationship. The choice became clear. I moved to New York, stumbled through a lot of mistakes, and developed the awesome life I have now. Of course, things don't always work out. For example, I once became friendly with a very famous person and then asked for a favor, but they thought I was taking advantage of them. And we haven't spoken since. That was a bummer. But my messy couch questions helped me put it into perspective. Because, number one, I asked for help. So what terrible thing happened? And the answer is, I. I lost that relationship. And number two, if I didn't ask for help, what would have happened? And the answer is, I guess we'd still be friendly but always at a distance, and we'd never reach a more meaningful level together. It was worth the chance. I say. Many others have said yes when I asked for favors. So the messy couch is worth it. Let's take off the plastic. The plastic is fear. We wrap so much of our life in in fear. When we take the plastic off, life can get messy. Some of what we feared might come true, but that's often worth the trade off. The things we protect too much are the things we never truly appreciate. A couch is meant to be sat on, and a life is meant to be lived. So take the plastic off. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.