Can you imagine quitting your job right now?
Today.
No more wondering if you’re on the right path or what might change just around the corner.
Walk out the door to an open horizon.
That would open up a lot of possibilities. Right?
Sure, it sounds scary too. Because there is lots of risk in upending your main source of income.
Which may also be your main source of identity. (What’s the first question most people ask you when you meet…”what do you do?” .. “where do you work?”)
You may not be financially secure enough to do this right now. (Will you ever be? What does that even mean, anyway?)
But still, this is tempting.
After all, a big dramatic move is the kind of kick in the ass you need to give yourself once in awhile. Right?
That’s the quickest, best, most-effective way to make a change. Just do it!
Go big or go home.
Grab the bull by the horns.
Start calling the shots around here.
You Need to Make Room
You can’t keep doing more. Adding more things on top of other things is not a viable strategy.
It’s a matter of clearing away the clutter.
And what better way to do that than to get the biggest, nastiest, gnarliest distraction off of your plate.
Quit your job.
It’s what you worry about and fret about nearly all day long nearly every day.
What will the boss think? Why can’t I get ahead?
I don’t like what they’re doing around here. This place will never get any better.
I’m stuck here. It’s killing me. And my hopes for the future.
So, do something about it. Now.
Quit.
But here’s the secret….
Don’t quit your whole job. Just the parts that suck.
The parts that suck because they suck, but also the parts that suck because they suck the life out of you.
They take away your energy.
They erode your hope.
They impede your progress.
Quit the Shit
You need to quit the parts of your job or your work that don’t help you or anyone around you.
There’s busywork. And dumb meetings. And things that are counter-productive.
There are a lot of parts where you are doing things you don’t like, to impress people who don’t matter to you very much, so that you can further secure your position in a place you don’t want to be.
So, let’s re-examine that for a minute.
What if you could reclaim some time and energy by eliminating some of these things from your work diet?
That would be pretty helpful, right?
You could focus more on developing your skills. Or completing “deep work” rather than the fluffy stuff.
But can you do that?
Yes, you absolutely can. Because you already have more permission than you think.
You can show up to the boring dumb meeting and grouse about it. Or you can politely explain that you can’t make this one because you need to take care of something else.
You can gravitate toward the unhappy folks in your office and complain. Or you can avoid those folks and put your energy into something more positive.
You can feel bad that you don’t earn more money. Or you can work on making your contributions ever more valuable. Which makes you more valuable. Wherever you are now, and wherever you go in the future.
The choice is yours.
Quit Thinking Like a Quitter
Maybe the biggest thing you could do would be to quit thinking like a quitter.
Decide that you are going to stay right where you are. Commit to digging in. Give it your all so that you can get more out of the whole experience. Which serves you and everyone around you much better in the long run.
You could also decide that you are going to quit….one year from now.
What would that look like?
What skills and experiences would you want to have in place one year from now so that you could move on to the type of work that you really want to do?
Make a list of those things and start incorporating them into your current role.
Find an outlet for the things that just can’t be shoehorned into your current role. Take up some extracurricular activities. Volunteer. Help someone you can learn from. Try something new.
Build your experience. Build your capabilities. Build your future.
Stop and Go
Stop doing some things so that you can make room to do other things.
We always seem to want to do more. We don’t often give ourselves a break. And we don’t easily embrace the idea of quitting.
But you’ve got to let some things go so that you can get to where you want to go. That’s how it works.
It doesn’t need to be big and dramatic. In fact, that’s probably a really bad idea in most cases.
It’s better to make small changes, over time, toward a vision you are excited about.
Drop one little thing. Pick up one little thing. See what happens.
Evaluate, learn, repeat.
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