I talk a lot about those that have jobs they hate and how to get out of them. But for some, making that leap of changing careers is much too scary. It does involve a big risk to drop your current job and pursue something different. Some of you find yourself in a situation where you cannot pursue something different just yet, because you’re the only bread winner in the house, and I completely understand this. Your first obligation is to always provide for your family. Don’t take a career risk unless you have an alternative source of income to pay for a roof over your head and put food on the table.

But what if you could stay at your current job and still pursue your career passions? You can do this, and I will give you three examples of how you can do it.

Example #1: Starting a Side Business. If your career passion involves a hobby that you can turn into a business, you can boot strap a part-time business to test the waters of your product or service. It won’t consume all of your time, and you can still work at your current job to make enough money to live. The idea is that if your part-time business receives a big response, you can slowly transition that into your full-time job and quit your other day job without taking any additional income risk. The point that you can transition the side business into a full-time business is the point when you are making enough money to cover all of your current and future bills.

Example #2: Volunteer in the career field you are passionate about: One of my passions is to someday coach basketball to young men. Getting into college coaching is very hard if you aren’t a prominent former player or you have big connections with other college coaches. High school coaching is a little easier to get into, so my strategy for being able to coach without dropping everything to do it is work my way up in coaching in my community and eventually look for a head coaching high school job. I won’t be in it for the money, because there is no money in it. But it’s something that I love that I can do while carrying a separate full-time job. You can also volunteer with non-profit organizations if your career passion involves helping others.

Example #3: Find a mentor in the field you want to be in. This example is all about networking. Start hanging out with people who are doing what you want to be doing and find someone willing to teach you about the profession during non-business hours. If you surround yourself with people who are living your dream, then opportunities might come your way with less effort than you thought.

The point that I am trying to make is that you don’t always have to go the traditional route for career transitioning which might involve going back to school, taking a pay cut, or quitting your job right away and hope for the best. Work for free in your spare time, and it could turn into a great opportunity. Remember, you have no experience to boast when you are transitioning careers, so volunteering is a great way to gain that experience. Starting a side business on your own is a great way to test if you can turn your hobby into a career or business. Don’t fall into the trap of being paralyzed by fear at the thought of changing careers.