The feeling guilty about quitting job phenomenon

It’s time to quit your job. It should be an exciting, fresh and empowering decision. It’s a new chapter and opportunity in life. So, why do you feel guilty??? I call it the “feeling guilty about quitting job phenomenon.”

This feeling can keep you from getting over the hump and taking the leap on a new venture.

It usually goes something like this…

You have it all planned out, you’re ready in your mind and have made the decision that you need to quit your job.

Whether you want to start a business, travel the world, take some time off or need to quit your job because you’re just burnt out. You’re ready to make your move to do something else.

Then, when it’s time to make your move, suddenly you’re confronted with it being “too real” to pull through on. You didn’t plan for that part.

You must face the finality of “am I really going to do this?” “Is this really the right decision?”

If it’s the empowered decision you require to take back your life, why does it feel so wrong now?

Tuning out the "feeling guilty about quitting job sentiment." You're making a powerful decision

Even if it doesn’t feel like it, quitting your job is a powerful decision. You are taking a life altering action. You are taking your circumstances back into your own grasp.

When you quit your job, it’s an intentional action step towards altering your life.

You are making the declaration:

“I choose to do something else.”

You are saying to yourself:

“I don’t know what will happen, but I have faith in my resilience to find my way.”

The job you are leaving will become a stepping stone to the next chapter.

The uncertainty felt in the "feeling guilty about quitting job stage" is the internal resistance against moving on to this next chapter.

Ending a Chapter

It's interesting. When you’re a child, every year you get to end a chapter in your life.

Every year there is a last day of school where you get to tie a bow on that previous year, say goodbye to everyone, and turn the page.

It was healing in a way. Regardless of how things went, you had the opportunity to start fresh and new. We didn't realize at the time that this was a childhood phenomenon.

I think when we quit a job, on some level we hope to recapture that "end of an era," new chapter, reset again.

But…

It doesn’t always end up that way.

We must let go of the idea that every bold decision should have a comfortable, clean ending. Too often we wait for a perfect opportunity for closure rather than creating our own ending.

Quitting can be a bit messy (and that’s okay)

When you decide to alter your circumstances and quit your job, there is no certainty or guarantee how it’s going to play out. Ultimately, how things end will be determined by how you embrace the uncertainty.

You must take the first step and trust that the second step will appear. You trust that you will have the strength to act upon it.

Of course there will be a piece of you that feels guilty. It’s part of the uncertainty and it would be silly to not too.

I experienced the guilt and uncertainty in my own career.

After what was years of job dissatisfaction, I made the decision to shut down my window cleaning business. For too long I was trying to hold onto an increasingly painful career path. I finally made the decision to mindfully walk away. I needed to do something else.

Much like how we end a school year as a child, I was in the mind frame of hoping for a seamless closing of a chapter in life. I wanted it to be an opportunity to sail off into the sunset and pursue my next venture.

Instead, I went through a bad feeling guilty about quitting job phase.

As I made the move to consciously step away, I hoped clarity and guidance would be bestowed upon me.

I thought, once I dropped the weight of a career that was dragging me down, I would feel unburdened and reinvigorated. That I would gain more clarity and see light at the end of the tunnel.

I’d hoped for it to be a neat and tidy exit and that all the pieces would fall into place.

This didn’t happen.

At least not right away…

Instead, everything felt like a messy ending. It seemed like there were threads left unties all over the place. It seemed like I was walking away from unfinished business.

"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings" -Lao Tzu

Sometimes in life you just gotta say “this isn’t working” and cut your losses.

Leaving a job is a way of setting boundaries in life and deciding to choose something else.

It can take some time for the dust to settle after you choose to quit your job.

It’s not a decision that’s going to come with complete certainty, free of any guilt, shame or regret. Quitting is a messy, imperfect human activity.

Accepting messy consequences is part of the package.

What makes it a successful decision is by creating a positive future. One where quitting was the turning point where you got to change the script and rewrite your story.

A story that you’re proud of.

A humble new beginning

Be willing to take a humble step back. Sometimes you have got to sacrifice security, finances, prestige and comfort on the way to bigger and better things.

There’s never a purposeful change in anyone’s livelihood without going through uncertainty. It comes with the territory.

Working through this stage is critical when leaving a job. Make it your superpower to embrace it.

You can drown in the shame of what you’ve left behind. Or you can transcend it and rise to new heights.

When something's holding you back

So, what do you do when something’s holding you back?

Well, I can’t tell you there’s one specific right answer.

There isn’t.

In trying to make a big decision like quitting your job, you can get caught up on the “one correct answer” misconception.

The importance in any big decision isn’t in which one we make but who you must be by making it.

Take the path of integrity. Make the choices that require you to say, “I can and will do better.”

A transformative career decision is one that becomes a trajectory altering life change.