Quote:
Originally Posted by fountainAtlas  I am not trying to be a downer, but I am sure that is how I will come off. I do not doubt that it happens, but have you ever meet any of them? Moreover, have you ever taken the time to talk to those who risked it all and lost? To pursue a course of action without even exploring the possible risks is not prudent. Will you know all the risks? No. But knowing some of the risks helps you prepare for them both mentally and physically. I also suspect that by quitting your job one becomes increasingly motivated by hunger. But, I also suspect, that some may become overly desperate and cause permanent damage to their possible standard of living. |
Ouch. I read that, and thought about my first attempt to quit my job and get a job I loved. That was after I graduated from college, and I quit my programming job, refused a number of other offers. That was 7 years ago, the attempt failed miserably, I became "overly desperate" and I lived at a lower standard of living in all the ways one can count a lower standard of living for a good 5.5 years. That meant, for the next 5.5 years, I worked at jobs I hated much worst just to survive - like fast food, retail, factories. My self-esteem, confidence, self-view, living of standards, health, all of that went way down for all of these years. All of that without working toward a job or business I loved. I consider it a miracle of a sort that I've finally arising out of that situation, and am still alive.
I also finally finished paying off the debt 8 months ago that was 80% incurred right when I quit my job 7 years ago.
Had I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't have quit my job 7 years ago. I'd have stayed and worked on the side (not 30 hours but some) to build up my skills, and save up a lot of money and go to graduate school. Maybe I could have reduced the hours to 30 hours too, I was paid well enough that I could still have lived fine on reduced hours. My job wasn't horrible, I actually enjoyed a good part of it, I just didn't want to do it as a career. Actually that job I quit is still the job I've enjoyed the most so far. I wanted to hurry up and get into a job I loved instead of taking the slow way to build up my skills, both job skills and my internal skills. Instead, that "quick-way" seemed to be taking a lot longer as I'm still not there.
I don't regret it, because I guess it's no use to regret anything in life. I'm sure I've learned a lot good lessons, but I've also learned bad lessons that I'm still working on removing. So for me, my journey is not over. The quitting may not have "permanently damaged" my standard of living, but I'm not yet at the point where I can say "yes it was worth it, I've finally gotten to get to do what I love." I hope one day that I will be able to say that. Unfortunately, from my point of view, right now, it's still up in the air whether I'll ever get to say that.