Quitting a job which makes you feel like you’re decomposing is an INCREDIBLY liberating feeling.
Never feel bad about leaving your soul-sucking, spirit-crushing boredom festival. I mean, uh, job with good prospects! Do you know why you shouldn’t feel bad about leaving it? A boring job is not like a boring pair of jeans — with boring jeans, you can throw on a red sequinned bolero, tease your hair to the heavens and wear a pair of shoes so magnificent that your jeans will suddenly seem invisible. But a boring job is not as versatile. Those bastards have you chained to a desk, eight hours a day. It’s such a huge chunk of your life gone, and if your boss suddenly turns into a monster (among other possible worst case scenarios), it can really cast an ugly pallor on everything else.
Simply put, it is impossible to be happy when your job makes you want to throw yourself out the window.
Oh baby, I’ve been there! I know how bad it can get. So, how did I know what I wanted to do? Well, I didn’t really. For a couple of years prior, I had this idea that I wanted to start a magazine. But the expense in starting up a magazine (on any decent scale) is HUGE and it just started to look more and more unstable. I didn’t really know what to do.
I started to make a list of possible things I could do to earn money. I have always known, instinctively, that writing about fashion and lifestyle is what I should be doing. I love interacting with an audience, I love style, aesthetics , everything about it. I think, though, that someone had convinced me that writers don’t make any money, so I had decided that I wasn’t going to do that. Pfffttttt! I should have listened to my mother, who always told me, “do what you love and the money will follow”. So I decided to start a blog, I do earn from it, but currently also work but hopefully will be working full time here before long.
I wouldn’t do anything else.
So — here are my tips.
Make lists of things you think you would enjoy doing. Show them to your friends and family, get their opinion. There might be something obvious that you forgot to put down. If they make rude comments or act negatively, please don’t listen! They’re just jealous that they’re not as brave as you are…
Focus on what you WANT! What would your dream career be like? (For example, I never thought that taking narcissistic photos of myself, one of my favourite ever things to do, would generate income… and yet!) If you have fears (“I’m not capable of making any money”; “I’m a failure”; “I have no skills”; “I’m a talentless hack”; “no one will ever take me seriously”; “I fear that branching out on my own will prove how lame I really am!”) GET RID OF THEM!
SAVE! Start now, if not sooner. If you don’t want to start without a nest-egg, start working towards building up that money. Get a couple of extra jobs if you can. Make that nest-egg your top priority.
Do your research. Check out other people doing something like what you want to do. How professional are they? What do they charge? Make a list of ways in which you are going to be better than them.
Know when to throw in the towel. Everyone has bad days, even in their dream career — for me, sometimes I can’t think of a single thing to write, can’t dress myself and feel like locking myself in a cupboard — but it’s not because I hate my job, it’s because I’m moody. Learn to differentiate between a bad day and actually disliking what you’re doing.
You will make mistakes. Make them quickly! In my experience, the more things you try, the closer you get to doing what you REALLY want.
Be brave. Have faith in yourself. Know that you can do it! ‘Cause you can, baby!
Click on the below quotes to tweet them! SIMPLES!
Quote #1.
“Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Quote #2.
“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I would say good luck, but you don’t need it, you little genius!
Twitter: @itsraimz
Facebook: facebook.com/raimisays
(All images sources available by clicking on the picture themselves)
So it’s officially been 1 week since my birthday, and the partying madness has stopped. After dragging out my birthday for 2 weekends in a row for partying my body is finally in shock and ready to shut down. I am writing this post after waking from a 13 hour sleep! Oops.
