Surviving the corporate world is a tough job in and of itself.  Besides the job you were hired to do, you have to mentally accept being told what to do and that most of the time someone can do the same job.  You are constantly in fear that your job might be pulled out from underneath you.  Yet, many people stay because they know a paycheck is coming every 2 weeks.  But is it worth it?  Is staying at a job that you don’t like worth the steady paycheck?

I recently explored these thoughts and ended up turning in my 2 weeks notice at a very respectable job.  The pay was great and the job was something I’d been doing for the last 7 years.  Yet, there was something that didn’t sit right with me.  I wanted something more for my life.  I wanted to do something that was meaningful enough so that when I am on my deathbed I can look back and smile at the value I gave the world.  I believe most people are not able to happily reflect upon how they’ve changed the world for the better which is why most people choose not to reflect on their lives.

Just Before The 2 Weeks Notice

There are different phases of thinking that I went through.  Prior to turning in my 2 weeks notice, I struggled with whether or not I should change course in my life.  Afterall, I had a good paying job and was able to do things with friends and family that I might not be able to do if I left.  There was a lot of back and forth not only with myself but also with my wife.  The turning point for me was when I realized my life was not what I wanted it to be.  I conducted a performance review on myself and realized I was stuck in a rut.  That discovery made me angry, sad, and hopeful at the same time.  I decided to turn in my 2 weeks.

The 2 Weeks Notice

Once I turned in my 2 weeks I experienced a wide range of emotions and conversations.  Initially, I felt a sense of worry over what I had just done.  Thoughts such as “How am I going to make money?” and “What will I do with my time?” kept racing through my mind.  After a few days of that, I had enough.  I made a decision that I would make this work.  I decided to try my hand at becoming an entrepreneur.

Once I made that decision, amazing things began happening.  I began having conversations with people about my decision to leave my job.  The natural question that everyone asked was, “Where are you going next?”  This question was always asked with a bit of a ‘take me with you if it’s good’ connotation.  I began telling people that I am going to start my own company.  Some people reacted optimistically towards my idea.  Even though they were optimistic, there was still a sense of worry in their reaction.  Others just began worrying instead of trying to cover up their reactions with optimism.

I noticed that most of the people who worried for me were the people who were stuck just like I was.  I was about to be different than how they operated and they worried about that.  They had never gone through a thought exercise about how to cope with uncertainty.  Thankfully I was doing that and I could see where they were coming from.  Otherwise, I would have jumped on the worry bandwagon with them.  I like to think of these situations as if we were in The Matrix (the first one of course).  People who are stuck in a rut are floating in those orange bubbles that the machines created.  The people who realize this are the ones who can break out of the bubble and see the truth.

As the 2 weeks progressed, my feelings toward my decision began to get stronger.  I began feeling as though I had made the best decision I could have.  I felt a sense of happiness and confidence that I hadn’t felt in a couple of years.  These positive feelings kept getting stronger by the day.  Until my last day.

The last day felt rushed.  I was fond of the work I had done and held an emotional attachment to the clients.  It was difficult to let go.  It didn’t help receiving all the wonderful emails, IMs, and phone calls from my colleagues expressing their gratitude, happiness, and optimism for me – although, I appreciated them greatly.  I remember sitting in my already packed up office getting ready to power down my company issued laptop for the last time.  It was difficult to shutdown.  After reflecting on this, I realized that it was difficult for me to let go of my life.  I had been doing this work for the last 7 years and it had become a part of who I was without me even knowing it.  I was the work, the work was me.

It’s never good to be in that situation.  When your work is your life it can become extremely tiresome.  I hadn’t noticed the type of person I had become.  I was terrible with my relationships, I constantly held a bit of anger within me and I felt that I had not contributed anything meaningful.  To help make this clearer, my dog helped out.  A typical day for him is sleeping while I work.  However yesterday, even though I was in the same routine as I normally am, he wanted to play all day long.  A part of me knew that he sensed something was different about me.  His desire to play helped me realize that a great weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

There are many people out there who are going to a job that they hate.  Perhaps that’s you.  You might have been pulled into the same ‘work is life’ mentality that I was in.  You might only be staying in a job because of the money.  If you are, here are somethings to think about that helped me figure it all out:

• Imagine yourself on your deathbed.  (I don’t wish death upon anyone, but this mental exercise is great to go through ever so often).  Now, look back over your life.  What did you accomplish?  Did you change the world? If so, how?  How well did you love?  Did you live the life you wanted to live?
• Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could possibly happen?”  Most of the time when answering this question, you can get a better idea of what you can live with and without.
• Pretend you just won the lottery and you no longer had any money troubles.  What would you do with your life for the next year if you did not have to earn a living?  (This is a good indicator of what you love doing.  Now you just need to find a way making money doing this.)

These thought exercises helped me while I was going through the 2 weeks notice.  I can attribute my happiness today to the time I took to think through these things.  Without taking the time to do so, I would still be worried.  I would be stressed out and probably acting irrationally.  Thankfully, that isn’t the case.  I woke up the morning after  with energy and vitality.  It’s been awhile since I felt that.

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