I was taking my first vacation in five years. Within the first 24 hours I was paged 41 times. As I checked my pager, I wondered, is this what I want to do with the rest of my life? Even on weekends and holidays the work never stopped.
Quitting is often seen as a sign of failure, which is why it’s sometimes hard to leave things. As a young boy, I remember being told that quitters lose and losers quit. If I left this job, was I a loser? I would be less than honest if I did not say that crossed my mind.
Secondly, some costs are easier to quantify than others. I knew that if I left my job to become a teacher, I would be making a third of my salary. The opportunity costs of staying were extremely difficult to put a price on. How do you value time with your family, and happiness?
Third, there is the factor of how much you have already invested. I spent 12 years at this company working extremely hard. I had tremendous loyalty to the business; it had given me so many opportunities. Did I owe it to the company to continue?
When I came back from vacation, I went into my boss’s office and told him that I was resigning from my position. I would give him as much notice as he needed, but that I no longer wanted to stay with the company.
I do not want this story to make it sound like I am an advocate of quitting. I truly believe that you need to honor your commitments—for example, if you sign up for a sport, you stay to the end of the season. After the season, you can make the decision to continue the sport or pursue something else.
There are times, however, when you need to change course so that you can cultivate your passion. Leaving my old company allowed me to find my true passion in teaching
I never regretted it.
I agree with a lot of this post, but I also think it truly is hard to know when to quit. For example, when I started running Cross Country at Calvert Hall, I felt completely overwhelmed. It seemed like there was never enough time in the day, and the little bit of time that I did have was spent catching up on assignments on which I had fallen behind. But even though it was miserable at first, I decided not to quit and ended up loving it and learning from my experiences in it throughout these four years. For me, a big factor in deciding whether or not to quit is not liking something vs. being uncomfortable in a situation. If I truly find myself hating something after I have been doing it for months on end, then that is when I will quit. Why do it if it is not making my life better? However, if I find something making me uncomfortable, I will typically stick with it. Why? Because while it is uncomfortable know, I know it will help me grow in the future and that eventually it will eventually stop being so uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteCasimir Pozecki
I agree with your post. The degree of difficulty should not be the deciding factor
ReplyDeleteI like this, especially as I am trying to come to terms with moving on-quitting. It is difficult. Doing something one loves, yet realizing it is taking a toll on one's health and well being. I appreciate the opinion and wish there was some rubric for knowing when it is time to try something else.
ReplyDeletemc