I wanna quit my job and move away … but I’ve got bills.

Ever wanted to run away from your current job, your current life, and start over? Are you feeling unfulfilled after all the hard work you’ve put in to get where you are in your career? Is the only thing keeping you from upending your entire life the fact you have to pay bills?

Reduce the overwhelm

You don’t have to do anything drastic to start enjoying your life again and to find passion and purpose outside of work (or even inside it!)

When we’re overwhelmed, our brains tell us we either have to approach it with an equally overwhelming action, or that it’s just too big a thing to even start counter-acting it. Since your entire life has been built around your 9 to 5 to this point, it can really feel like the only part of your life.

Here’s the good news, and I hope it brings you some relief: You don’t have to do anything drastic to start taking your life back from work and building a personality and passions outside of your job.

Get curious

Here is its: Pick an interest not related to your job in any way and learn one thing about it. Congratulations! You’ve started building your life outside work.

Did she just tell me to find a hobby? You might angrily ask.

Nope. An interest doesn’t have to be a hobby. A hobby denotes a thing you do all the time and spend a lot of money on. That’s overwhelming. We aren’t doing overwhelming right now. We’re following curiosity. Sure it might lead somewhere, but it’s okay for it to lead nowhere. This is a chance to play, not an edict to commit.

What if I don’t have any interests? You were interested in something once. Go all the way back into your childhood if you have to. You were interested in something. My first year of college, my RA rowed for an intramural team. I thought that sounded cool and asked a few questions about it. But it never went beyond that. Years later I saw The Social Network and the Winkelvoss twins rowing. I thought “I remember being interested in that. I wonder if there’s anywhere to learn to row near me.” Guess what I do in my spare time now?

What if …

Here’s the thing. I row all the time now. I am passionate about it. I workout in the morning to make my times better. I’m on the board of my local club. I compete.

There were a lot of what ifs that could have stopped me. First, I live in a desert. Where was I going to find the water to row? Second, I’m actually scared of water. Very scared. I don’t like what lives in water, and I can’t swim. So why would I put myself in a position to fall in water? Well… maybe rowing was a good way to become not scared of water?

Don’t let what ifs stop you here.

Here’s what you do:

1. Find an interest, any interest, even if it’s a single thought you had when you were a kid.

2. Find the smallest possible way to learn or engage with that interest that takes the least amount of energy. I like watching youtube videos or googling to see if there just might be a club related to it in my area.

The great thing about starting small with an interest, is that it gives you a chance to back out if you actually don’t find it interesting anymore.

But at the end of this process, you’ll have

1. done something for yourself that isn’t work

2. followed your curiosity

That is enough to start a spark. That is enough to gain momentum if that’s what you want or need.

You won’t have quit your job. You won’t have moved away. You’ll still be able to pay your bills. But now you’ll have sweet personal time. And you’ll start gaining energy here and in other areas outside your life.