I found myself in a pickle last year.
I knew I needed to make a drastic change, but facing 40, it felt like a cliche. I didn’t want to be so predictable as to buy a sportscar or get plastic surgery or go to a spa … well, scratch that, I’d totally go to a spa. But a midlife crisis wasn’t for me.
What was for me, though, was getting brutally honest with myself. And that process of getting honest revealed some ugly truths. The biggest one? I was dreadfully unhappy with my job.
It was a good job, by all common forms of measure. I was paid well, I liked the people I worked with, it wasn’t too taxing mentally, and it wasn’t too challenging, nor did it require obscenely long hours.
And those were the precise reasons I decided to quit and go solo.
I was well-paid – to serve someone else’s agenda.
I liked the people I worked with – no one challenged me or empowered me to carve new paths, create anything new, or take any sort of risk. They were all likewise unchallenged and unempowered. Nothing to do with the people who hired them – just the reality of the job.
It wasn’t too challenging or taxing – and the work consequently felt like death by boredom.
I never had to stay late - because nothing lit my fires or commanded excitement or passion.
Quitting that job, while terrifying and full of uncertainty, turned out to be the best birthday gift I could have ever given myself.
This blog, I hope, will explain more about why that was, and perhaps help others who are facing or have made the same decision to get inspired – from the same Latin root that gives us respiration – like a breath of fresh air, the vital life force that makes work fun and fulfilling.
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