5 Things You Must Do to Leave Your Soul Sucking Job
I’ve had a couple of truly soul sucking jobs in my life. I can remember very clearly the traffic laden commutes, stressful environments, poor management, and low pay. A few times, some truly crazy things happened that taught me a lot about business, management, self worth, and priorities.
As a teenager, my place of employment suddenly began having dangerous levels of carbon monoxide pouring into our work area. One employee fell unconscious due to the problem, and even then the management didn’t take initiative until OSHA stepped in.
At another company years later, the owner stopped paying her employees completely. When I inquired about my bank-returned paycheck, she told me that I should ask my family to support me while I continued to work for her. Can you imagine? Those aside, I’ve also worked at some great places with friendly managers and upbeat fellow employees who made it a joy to be at work.
If you are staying at a job that you truly despise, you need to assess what your priorities really are. Soul sucking jobs are usually a symptom of a much bigger problem. Addressing these longer term issues are the only way out. That is, of course, assuming that you don’t have the savings to quit right now and that you have been unable to find something better up until this point.
5 Things You Must Do to Leave Your Soul Sucking Job
Cut back on your lifestyle so that you don’t need to work so damn much. Let’s face it. If you are the typical American family with an oversized home, three cars, and a shopping problem, your job owns you. It is very, very difficult to justify leaving a job when you require $10,000 per month just to scrape by.
This is a good time to really think about your priorities and consider embracing a life of minimalism. I’m not saying that you need to live with only two pairs of clothes and a futon to your name. Not at all. Living a minimal lifestyle is about living with only what you need and love, and nothing more.
Check out Leo Babauta’s The Power of Less and the Becoming Minimalist blog for ideas and inspiration. You can also check out my post, 5 Ways a Minimalistic Life Can Reduce Stress in Your Life here.
Get out of debt and build up an emergency fund. Debt owns you. It ties you down, prevents you from grabbing new and amazing opportunities, and strips you of your potential. Why can’t you leave your job this month and start the career of your dreams?
I’d bet that the biggest reason is because you’ve got three credit cards, a student loan and a car loan, and barely a penny in savings. This too seems to be the American way, but it isn’t the way of successful folks. Check out Dave Ramsey’s stellar book, The Total Money Makeover and his free radio show for help turning the ship around.
Know Your worth. The truly sad part about bad companies is that employees stay because they don’t know their worth. This negative outlook is the reason you don’t think you’ll be able to find something better, and the reason you’re terrified to quit. If you were your own best friend, what would you tell you? I am betting that you’d have much more belief and hope for that person if the roles were reversed.
What does your day to day life look like when you imagine your perfect day? I don’t mean when you’re on vacation enjoying a chance to drink margaritas poolside and do absolutely nothing. A true vacation is great for you, but think long term. You have many more working years ahead of you. What would those really look like for you? How would you spend them?
What would I need to do to make that happen? So you’ve identified what your dream workday would look like. That’s great! Setting aside all negative thoughts and fear-based thoughts, ask yourself what it would take to make that come true. What small steps could you take starting today that would lead you to this life?
Have you left a soul crushing job in favor of the life you were meant to live? Let us know in the comments!
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