Why Would You Quit Your Job?

It’s been one year since I left the security of a generously paid and comfortable job. The reason for leaving was simple: I didn’t want to turn 30, 40 or reach retirement age doing a job that I “fell into” or that was “okay” and not great. I am 25 and my husband and I don’t have children or a mortgage to pay – yet. Yet being the key word because I know that one day we want to have kids and possibly buy a home, maybe even a vacation home and who knows what else. I also know that I don’t want to go through these experiences being a frustrated individual.

I met so many frustrated and unfulfilled people in my 3.5 years of working at the headquarters of a corporate company. These frustrated people I talk about are educated individuals with a lot of greatness inside of them. They are people who at one point had certain dreams for their future. Dreams that seemed to have fallen by the waste side as the years went on.

I would often ask my colleagues how they chose their careers and the two main responses were: “Because I knew I could always find a job” or “I just fell into it.” I would then ask if they were happy and some would say “yes” while most would say “not really.” I would continue to ask the ones who responded with “not really”: “Why don’t you look for another job then?” The responses: “Because I have a family and bills to pay” or “It’s been so long I don’t know how to do anything else.”

These conversations are tattooed in my memory. They shaped my views of what life could be like if I didn’t make the choice NOW to follow my instincts and listen to the potential that is inside of me. Potential that is inside ALL of us.

I understood the importance of how the choices we make today affect our tomorrow. When it comes to thinking about the work we will do for the rest of our lives, short-term satisfaction or comfort should not be an option. Who wants to willingly spend the majority of their life doing work that causes us more unhappiness than happiness? Not me. And I’m sure not you either.

We have the choice to shape the success of our future. It is our responsibility to ourselves to choose right, to go beyond our self-created fear and do work that fills our lives with joy. Work with joy does not mean a job with a big paycheck either. I have met street food vendors whom you could feel are genuinely happy and fulfilled with their lives.

5 years ago my husband quit his job to start his own business. It didn’t work out and we ended up with no money and a lot of debt. In a post for the future I will share the details of how we lived in a hostel sharing one bed and depended on a $10 ATM overdraft allowance to eat. I lived for one year without the security of money and the stress of debt. Was it super fun worrying about money? Not really. After the year of struggle we both found jobs and had more money than ever before. I traveled, ate out, shopped and experienced all the things “money can buy.” It was all cool and fun at the beginning until the excitement of the materialistic things died. Which in my experience always does.

We are now both unemployed (again) and working everyday to build a future of happiness and fulfilment. There are certainly days of fear and doubt. However, I will gladly take those days over sitting in an office working for the dreams of someone else – dreams that I don’t believe in and therefore don’t bring anything to my life besides a paycheck.

Time or life does not stop for anyone and that is why I say: Quit your job before it’s too late. If the work you do everyday brings more negative feelings than positive ones you are in the wrong place. So go and find where you belong. Take risks. Start small. Start somewhere. People from all backgrounds and ages reinvent themselves everyday and there is no reason why you can’t either.