Most New Year’s resolutions turn out to be less successful than people expect when they make them, starting with high-minded goals for fitness.

But this is a column about people who make wholesale life changes, people with financially solid careers who risk that stability. What they share is a single-minded focus on a niche, not an overarching vision to change the world.

Monique Greenwood is one of them. She was the editor in chief of Essence Magazine, her childhood dream job. But as she was working on a book, “Having What Matters,” she realized that what she really wanted was to concentrate on what had been a sideline and go into the bed-and-breakfast business.

“I decided I was worth the investment,” Ms. Greenwood said.

For Lisa Congdon, the change was less an epiphany. She was working in a senior role at an education nonprofit organization and decided to take art classes on the side “with zero intention of becoming an artist; it was to balance office work.” Some 10 years later, she left the stable job to become a commercial artist and illustrator.