What nobody tells you about leaving a career

It’s been 2.5 years since I hop, skipped and jumped out of the trading floor and into self employed life. 

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In all honesty, I never thought I’d have the courage to do it - I used to wake up in the middle of the night at times in a cold sweat, equally panicked about the prospect of leaving as I was about the prospect of never fully claiming my life. 

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This time of year would catch me out. 

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After the momentum of the run up to the end of the year, the knowing looks of ‘nearly there’ at the water fountain in the weeks running up to Christmas, the ‘oh, we can leave that for now, we’ll look at in the new year’, the collective energy murmuring - ‘‘we just can’t wait the the year to be over so we can come back fresh and ready to hit the ground running again in January’. 

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And then I’d come back in January, the break seeming far too short, almost like I’d been woken from a dream too soon, bleary eyed I’d stumble back into the office - ‘is it really time? Really? Is it really January?’

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Momentary blips of ‘I cannot do this anymore, this year I will leave’ would dissipate pretty quickly as soon as the talk of bonuses started, which would keep me going until at least mid Feb, and then…. 

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This cannot be my life. I must leave. I must leave. I must leave.

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And then, after too many rounds of the above, I finally found the courage and  I left. 

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But the truth is, having done the deed and left the industry, changing careers isn’t the answer. 

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It really isn’t. 

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That said, it’s not hugely surprising that so many of us believe that by changing jobs, everything else will change too. Especially for city folk who have been conditioned from way back when to believe that their job, their achievement, their CV is the crux of who they are as a human being. 

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If we are committed to believing that who we are is defined by what we do, of course we imagine everything changes as soon as we change the top line of our CV to something new and shiny. 

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But unfortunately, having made that shift myself, I can tell you from the other side..

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As goes the saying… wherever you go, there you are…

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However much we hope that, by changing jobs, commutes, bosses and pret a manger locations, everything else will magically change too… the truth of it, is that aside from the momentary period of excitement linked to the newness… the you that was in your old job will soon enough return. 

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The thoughts you had in your old work reappear, the feeling of being not good enough, an imposter, a failure. The ideas that something needs to change. That life is meant to be different. That there has to be more than this.

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All those nagging thoughts will still be there when you change careers…

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Unless, you approach your life shift with a little more intentionality than just jumping ship… 

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Unless you decide that perhaps you’re more than just your career..

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Unless you see that there might be another way..

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Intrigued? Come and say hi, or book a call here

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L x

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