2-3-4 Friday
‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’
1 thought
Where do we go from here in the world of work?
Recently I met a friend who quitted her job. It was a fancy, high-profile job, with good benefits and a clear career trajectory. If she stayed, she would have gone far. Instead, she moved into film. She wasn’t some closet Chloe Zhao. Her background in film?
Zero. Nada. Zilch.
Another friend recently took a job that seemed ‘dead-end’. He had been working in another job with promotion prospects. If he continued, he would have been promoted. But he told me that he wanted an exit from the industry that he was in, and doing this would build an exit ramp, rather
than getting more and more accolades in an industry he didn’t care much about.
It’s happened too many times in my personal circles to chalk it off as an anomaly. Young people are quitting their cushy jobs, in favour of seemingly obscure routes. I keep asking myself,
Why? Why is this happening?
I don’t think people are saying ‘How much worse could it get?’ I think they are saying, ‘It could get much better from this.’
Over the pandemic, they have seen that no one has any real idea about what’s happening. Traditional institutions one has placed faith in such as the government may have come up lacking.
If there’s anything to learn from these examples, two come to mind.
Firstly, as Alcoholics’ Anonymous love saying,
If nothing changes, nothing changes.
If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, then change needs to happen. It can be something radical like quitting your job, or it can be telling your boss that you would like to switch roles. But change needs to happen, for change to
happen.
Secondly, it will all work out (worried about the
money? - Here's an article to help). We are so scared that our lives will come apart, we will end up begging on the streets, and that we will not be employable if we quit. Or the dreaded question,
What are you doing?
May come up lacking. But hold on. You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to have some of the answers, and be willing to take the action to commit to finding out the rest.
Trust yourself. You didn’t have all the answers when you were born, but you’ve made it till this point. You won’t, even at the end of your journey.
Would you commit to finding out?
1 talk
If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with another hello.
Paulo Coelho
1 tip
I don’t know what’s happening. If you’re thinking of quitting your job/have quitted, hit reply, and tell me why. I would love to hear from you.
John, liveyoungandwell.com