2-3-4 Friday

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Happy Friday. 

In 2 days’ time, I would have marked the 1-year mark since I left as a social worker. 

And fortunately (or unfortunately), it’s been the funnest year of my life. 

I know many of you follow this newsletter because of savethesocialworker.com, a site I created to give practical handles for social workers to deal with the pragmatic things in social work – never-ending paperwork, caseloads you were drowning in, and many more. 

I’m sorry I haven’t updated it as much as I would have liked to – because it’s been busy trying to find money to earn. 

It’s now come alive again – with our latest articles focusing on the challenges in social work – like how the small micro-skills make a huge impact, and whether you should quit. 

What I wanted to share today is this idea – that quitting is okay. 

It’s okay to take a break, without knowing what’s next. We want the certainty of knowing – what this break is for, what we are doing during the break, how we are going to feed ourselves. 

You may not be in a position like me, where I could quit without having anything else lined up. I had no dependants.

But it eventually worked out – I started writing and earning $600 a month, and it slowly increased. 

This is the crux. 

Whatever happens, you know that you will take care of yourself. You’ve done it before. You went to school, with no friends – and made new ones. You left for a new housing area – and promptly fitted in. 

Why lack the trust in yourself? 

The question thus is: in social working now – are you caring more for others than you are for yourself? Have you thus lost your faith in your own ability to care for yourself? 

Especially as social workers, we love helping others. That’s why quitting a job like social work, can seem scary, because however much we are struggling, we tell ourselves, we have a duty to the clients we serve. You may think of the many clients depending on you for help. 

But how about the duty to yourself? 

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Know that whatever happens, you will, and can take care of yourself.

1 tip

Here’s an idea, from Tim Ferriss, the author of the 4-Hour Work Week. 

If you’re deciding something, and struggle to come to the decision, do fear-setting. 

Rather than doing up a pros-cons list, goal-setting list of what you will achieve in your decision, write a list of the greatest fears that could happen. 

On the next column, ask yourself what you would do if that happened. 

You will find yourself trusting yourself a little more, in whatever scary decision you make. 

John