5 Signs It’s Time To Leave Your Desk Job And The 5 Steps You Should Take To Prepare To Leave

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I know what you’re thinking. I didn’t know gold-diggers had to work real jobs. Well, to be honest most of them don’t. However, I enjoyed being in charge of my sustenance and worked a full-time 10-to-7 job at a luxury fitness club (spoiler alert, I hated it!). I worked this job just long enough until I successfully figured out a way to purse what I really wanted to do: Writing.

5 Signs You Know It’s Time To Leave Your Desk Job

1. They have your body but they don’t have your mind

My physical self was at the desk, in the chair, but my head was all over the place. I was thinking about what I could be doing, what I wanted to be doing, and what I should be doing.

2. You’re bringing others around you down

I worked a job where my performance directly affected my co-worker’s bonuses. Thus, my lack of commitment wasn’t just hurting me it was hurting people I had grown to care about. I couldn’t fake it and everyone knew I was the weakest link.

3. The only exciting part of your day is lunch

This one might make you laugh but it’s so funny because it’s so depressingly true. I would spend hours decided what and when to get lunch. It was the only exciting part of my day and that’s pathetic. In my heart I knew I should have a job I loved so much I would forget to eat not spending my day planning my life around it.

4. You’re starting to develop self-destructive habits

I hadn’t smoked since I was 17 but here I was finding myself going out for smoke breaks with a co-worker. It wasn’t the “me” I knew and that I liked.

5. You spend more of your energy pretending to do work then you do on actually doing work

I was putting all my energy into trying to look productive without every really getting anything done.

5 Steps You Can Take To Prepare To Leave

1. Collect Data

I polled the people around me but most important I listened to my inner voice. I accepted that it was going to be scary but I also new that while all my peers were investing in stocks, bonds, and start-ups I was going to invest in MYSELF.

2. Stop thinking about and talking about your passion; devote all of your free time to the craft you want to pursue

I would wake up for work 2 hours early, keep my phone in airplane mode and write. It was the most productive writing time of my life and my favorite portion of the day.

3. Engineer a plan and stick to it no matter what

I developed a routine. My entire day revolved around my 2 hours of pre-workday writing time. The time I went to bed, the plans I made the night before, and my workouts were moved from AM to PM.

4. Make a ‘budget timeline’

A budget timeline is the amount of money you have divided by how much you spend a day. I had put aside all of my disposal income for months until I finally reached an amount I felt comfortable with. I had just enough to last me 1 year. This would put enough pressure on me to finish the project I was working on without causing undue amounts of stress (which can totally block ones creative process).

5. Failure isn’t an option

With money saved and a solid writing routine developed I was feeling more confident then ever in my ability to rely on my own talents. I admit despite my attempt to minimize the risk of taking the plunge and quitting my day job I was scared. I had to decide that failure wasn’t going to be an option. I had a project I believed in, money saved to live on, and the time to complete it if I stayed on track.

In closing, I had my first paid writing job within 6 months of leaving my job and use my free time to work on my larger project.