You might ask silently this question yourself over time. Or maybe for those who want to quit a job without another lined up. Is it OKAY to leave your current job that pays well without any plan? Is it safe to step out of faith and be ready for a new challenge that may come your way? Or should you stay in a work that you hate?
We all know this question is often confusing. Although the standard advice is to wait until you have another job lined up before leaving your current one, that doesn’t always go as planned.
In my head, I understand that this is probably the best move to make if you choose to quit your job but it’s a bit difficult emotionally too. Because you will need sufficient financial support on your rainy days.
However, quitting a job without a plan also gives you a nightmare in the long run if you stay unemployed. But If you think that your current job impacts your mental health, then you know that step one was just to get out and take a break.
Is Quitting a Job Without a Plan a Good Idea?
These days, a lot of people are quitting their job in search of better opportunities. There’s nothing wrong with going after a new job if you don’t particularly enjoy what you do.
But there are things that you need to pay attention to. Make sure you’re in a strong enough financial position to cover your cost while you look for work, at least for up to 6 months because you never know how long you’d be out. It’s still a dumb decision to quit without anything. It will increase stress and decrease mental health too.
Obviously, life would be a more enjoyable experience getting paid to do what you love but that’s not always the case for everyone.
Why I Want to Quit My Job
I spent a lot of time wrestling with this decision before I determined what was best for me. I’ve known forever that I wanted to be my own boss and that I didn’t want to work a 6 — 10.
My job is as a helper in one of the most expensive cities in the world and I came here in 2017, 5 years ago. On top of that, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and honestly, still I don’t.
But the desire in my heart completely made me feel much better if I take a leap of faith and give myself a chance to go in another direction.
I feel like I have something inside that is greater than just doing this job. When I started having those feelings, my first thought was that I want to leave my job, but after having a conversation with a close friend of mine I decided to stick it out and try to improve my situation before acting on my first impulse to leave.
And I took on new responsibilities with the hope that by changing things up I might experience a renewed sense of excitement for my work. I gave this new role another 2 years and even though I love the people that I worked with, I knew at this point, working 6 to 10 wasn’t for me. And even though I knew deep down that I wanted to quit, I hadn’t made up my mind yet because I was terrified of leaving for a few reasons.
My Biggest Reason Why I’m Afraid of Quitting a Job Without a Plan
“ If you’re at the point where you are feeling unhappy and stressed out, work expectations feel unreasonable and unrealistic — you don’t owe anyone loyalty except to yourself. Your mental and physical health is a priority. If you have the means and can leave — do it”.
This is what I always suggest to people when they come to me and ask for advice. And applying my own advice is much easier said than done. But that’s not the point. I don’t mind taking my own advice and I think that’s the best for me to do. I will regret always taking the safe route because it kept me in jobs that were draining and did not benefit me.
There were also things that I put into consideration as my biggest reason why quitting a job without a plan is scary.
First and foremost I was scared of running out of money. I make a steady income and leaving this job was scary because I knew I was throwing away a good paycheck.
And the second thing is the uncertainty that I was going to face once I became unemployed. Yes, this was the fact that I didn’t know where my next paycheck was going to come from.
Time is Valuable
I mulled over these fears and what I really wanted to do for years and I ultimately came to a conclusion that completely changed my perspective.
What I concluded after years of reflection and introspection is that I value time exponentially more than I value any other nonliving thing in this world.
But anyway the point is that we have a lot less time to spend doing the things that we love and that brings me back to my conclusion about valuing time more than anything else in the world. Think about it, you can trade time and a lot of other things for money but you can’t trade anything else in the entire world for more time. Once time is gone, it’s gone for good and the less you have it the more valuable it becomes.
Life is way too short to spend our time doing things that we don’t genuinely enjoy. The things that we fear so much like quitting our job aren’t as scary as they are.
Be at Peace With Whatever Decision You Make
I know a lot of pros and cons addressing to quitting a job without lined up. But again, it’s all by choice and everyone has different choices. In my case, I had been overworking to the point where I am extremely exhausted.
I finally reached my breaking point this winter. I don’t have a job lined up for this coming spring when I would be finally leaving, and I’m ok with it. It’s SUPER scary and makes me nervous but it also makes me very excited because I’m so looking forward to getting my life and my health back.
I convince my heart that I can accomplish my dream and most importantly, put my trust in God. Also, I’m boosting my saving for at least up to 12 months ahead for my rainy days. Above all, I needed to have this break because this job is just too much.
My advice (and this applies only if you have some savings to get you through a few months) would be to just quit if it’s really affecting your life that much, and realize that your job is just a job but your health and sanity are so much more important. Don’t wait for that breaking point like I did. It’s not pretty and it’s hard to recover from.
Not everyone will understand why some quit without a job, especially since we live in a very pragmatic society. Most importantly, you would have to be at peace or even happy with whatever decision you make and don’t look back!
