Every wondered why is scary to leave your job even when you are not happy in it?
If thinking about changing careers, leaving your job makes you feel paralyzed and overwhelmed with self-doubt, you are not alone. Making a transition is very scary, disruptive, and difficult.
Studies on stress shows that the brain biologically perceives changing job or leaving a job as one of a category of life change that pose a threat to its survival.
Often it is the financial commitment that keep you in your job even if it makes you feel miserable. We often find excuses that make us stay where we are. Once you recognize the fear response as trying to protect you from failing, you can plan to just go for it.
You have self-doubt thoughts that is stopping you from moving forward
The only way to grow is to overcome the fear of changing paths.
You can acknowledge the critical yet protective internal voice in your head but decide that you’re not going to let it control your actions.
Heres how to:
- Break the fear: Before you do anything else, write out a list of all the reasons a career transition is a “must do” for you and everything that scares you about it
- Allow yourself permission to write your every complaint, frustration, injustice or betrayal to help illustrate for yourself why it’s non-negotiable for you to make a move.
Trying to decide on–and execute–a career change in isolation can send your fear into overdrive and can make the entire process more painful. To create external encouragement and accountability, integrate friends and family into your search by sharing your “must do” manifesto with them. When you do, tell them that fear might try to derail you, and ask them to remind you of all these reasons why your job search is important and worth putting time and energy into.
Once you have implemented these 2 steps, you need to know how to quit:
- Consider the reasons why you want to leave your job
- Then have a game plan so that you are not stressing about money and paying your bills in the foreseeable future. Whether it is looking for a part-time job which you you more flexibility.
- Saving up to start your own company
- looking for a part-time job that offers more flexibility,
- company, saving up to start your own
This is because that will support the transition from your current job to whatever your next step is.
Also, before you quit your job, it is important to note that it is easier to find a new job or make the transition to a new career path while still employed at your current position — especially when it comes to your finances.
But if you have considered all these options and you are thinking about balancing your home life and your job which is causing you a lot of stress to the point of you being sick and it might be ok for you to quit before you have determined your next step.
If that means quitting your job or requesting a temporary leave of absence, it is OK for you to do so. It is OK for you to put your family first. And the fact is, you are the only one who can choose to do it for yourself.