588: Should You Quit Your Job to Focus on Making a Career Change?

Mike Goodman 00:01

I think I got to a point where I thought I had changed jobs a couple times as it was, and I thought, you know, "Is there anything out there I'm going to like? And is there, you know, what if I change jobs, and what if it's something worse?"

Introduction 00:20

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast with Scott Anthony Barlow. We hope you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does, and make it happen. We help you define the work that is unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you feel like you were meant for more, and you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:45

Some people can just keep going forever in a job that they no longer find anymore. But for many other people, there's an expiration date when it starts to get really painful to keep going to work, sitting at your desk and knowing you're just not that excited about it. But if you're at that point, how do you know if you should just simply quit your job? Will that be the right move? And aside from the financial aspect, there are many other reasons that this could be the best or the worst decision of your life.

Mike Goodman 01:18

I knew I was going to have challenges ahead, but I knew that I was making the right decision. Because staying in a job that literally just made me feel ill was not ever going to do anything right for me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:30

That's Mike Goodman. Several years ago, he came to us after working in higher education, and we had the pleasure of working with him as a client to find his ideal career next step. During his journey, Mike did a phenomenal job evaluating whether or not he should quit his job in higher ed before having the next role lined up. Later on in our conversation, you're going to learn four questions, we get into four specific questions to ask yourself to know if it makes sense for you to quit, and we're talking specifically about without having another opportunity. But first, we need to start with how Mike got to this step in his career in the first place.

Mike Goodman 02:07

It has been a curvy road, to say the least. Boy after college, I held a number of kind of entry level work positions, and then I decided I wanted to pursue a career in higher ed. So I started working for a small liberal arts college in the marketing office. And I really had fun with it at first. It was a cool way to learn some different, you know, I was responsible for managing a website, which I really liked, and I was the first point of contact for anybody that needed help, you know, marketing related projects. It was a fun role, but then it, kind of, like any job I had held previously, I got to a point where it just kind of got stale. And while I was there, I decided to take advantage of a tuition benefit, and I went for another degree, and then when I finished, I moved on to another role that was an advancement in title, responsibility and luckily, also in pay. I never really felt overly engaged in the new role, but I felt like I needed to give it some time. And unfortunately, as time went on, my lack of engagement never really changed. If anything, I probably got more and more unengaged as time went on. And yet, the funny part about that is, of all the jobs I had held full time, I stayed in that role the longest. It didn't really feel like a fit, but yet, I stayed in that role for years. I think I got to a point where I thought I had changed jobs a couple times as it was, and I thought, you know, "Is there really... Is there anything out there I'm going to like? And is there, you know, what if I change jobs and what if it's something worse?" I did this routine with myself for several years while I was there where I would apply for jobs, I would sometimes get called for an interview. Sometimes I go to the interview, or as the interview was approaching, I would change my mind and just think, "This isn't for me. I don't think I'm going to pursue this." Or I would go to an interview and then sometimes remove myself from the process because I leave the interview just feeling not excited or it didn't feel like an improvement from where I was. I mean, this went on for too long. This went on for several years. And I would just kind of tell myself, "it was almost like the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know." And on top of everything else, I felt like while I was in this job, my mood was kind of, I phrased it like a constant state of blah.

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:38

A constant state of blah. What is... Expand on that for me. What do you would mean by that?

Mike Goodman 04:42

Nothing felt exciting. I didn't have any sort of clue what I wanted to do, work wise. I didn't have any sort of excitement in the role I was in. But then I was looking around at other jobs, and I think, "Well, you know, what am I qualified for? What is my resume show like? What am I going to find that's any different than what I'm doing?" Because I think, like most people, you sometimes feel pigeonholed in that, you know, my resume states I've done this, but how am I going to show that I can do something different, or how am I going to translate my experience into showing that I can do something different? I had about an hour commute without traffic, so regularly I did hit traffic. So, I mean, it wasn't uncommon for me to have a day where it could take upwards of two to three hours to get home, or in the morning, say, if the weather was bad or there was an accident, it could take that long to get in. I was in this spiral that was just really, really bad, and I just felt like literally, a constant state of blah was the best way to phrase it.

Scott Anthony Barlow 05:42

That is... I was gonna say super interesting, and it probably didn't feel particularly interesting at the time. In fact, the opposite of it. It's interesting because so many people get stuck in that state where, you know, you're commuting multiple hours a day, and you're, I don't know, gridlocked along traffic, and then you are feeling like, "Hey, I'm not sure even what I want to change to, but I know that this isn't it", and you're struggling or trying to push through that all at the same time. And I think that's where a lot of our listeners have been, and certainly experienced at least parts of that. So I think everybody knows exactly what you're talking about. Now, what ended up happening from there? You lived in that state of blah for, it sounds like almost five years, right?

Mike Goodman 06:26

Yeah. I mean, pretty much four and some change, but you know, much too long. What happened was I didn't want to feel that way anymore. I knew if I didn't take control of my situation and make anything change, then another year would go by, and I would still be in the same job, and I would still be kind of spinning my wheels in terms of, "All right, what am I going to do?" So I had been on the East Coast. I'm from the East Coast. And I decided after a long time of thinking about it, the time had come and I was going to move to the West Coast. I approached my boss and told her my plans. I didn't really have a whole in depth plan other than that, but I thought, well, this is going to force me to find something else and get a new start and just kind of kick things off on the right track. So I told my boss, and they approached me with an offer to allow me to go to the West Coast, but I could work remotely for a set time period, so it had an end date, and I was very surprised, but I was definitely appreciative and accepted the offer. And so I came to the West Coast and still worked remote. And then it was, kind of reality, in a sense, hit me because now it's like, "Well, now I really have to figure this out. What am I going to do?" I applied for some jobs, didn't really find anything that I was overly excited about, and then time marched by really quickly, and my contract came to an end, and then all of a sudden, I got contacted by a recruiter for a job opportunity that was in Florida. I knew the company, and I was intrigued, and I thought, "Well, I don't have any other options at the moment. Let's check this out." Yeah, the whole process was extremely rushed, like it was just, there was very... There was no real personal connection, you know, so I would talk with a recruiter, and they'd set me up for a phone call, say, with a hiring manager, and then I ended up talking to a total of three people by phone. There was no in person and no Skype. It was all by phone. It was very quick, I think. In the period of a week, I had three different conversations, and then I got an offer. The whole process, again, like I said, was so rushed. They wanted an answer within 24 hours. You know, it wasn't like, "Oh, take a few days and think about it. Let's make sure it's the right fit."

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:49

Bad sign number one.

Mike Goodman 08:50

It was like, yes. And my gut already was kind of like, I need time to think about this. But then I didn't have anything else. Florida had never really been a plan or a thought or an interest. But I thought, well, maybe this is just a different way of going on an adventure. And I accepted the offer. I had about three weeks from when I accepted to when I had to be down there to start. And the whole period between, honestly, I was just in like a personal hell, and I just felt my anxiety was just, literally, it was through the roof. I was like, "Oh my, I don't know if is this right, and do I really want to be in Florida, and what do I know about this job? And am I really prepared for this?" And, you know, just constant, there's just a lot of doubt. And I didn't have an excited feeling, if anything, I just, I felt extreme anxiety.

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:37

Did you recognize that in the moment, or was it only afterwards, where it that was really apparent to you? What was going on at the time?

Mike Goodman 09:45

I knew at the moment I was anxious because I wasn't sleeping well, and I was just kind of like... But I was unsure, but I thought, "You know what, it's nerves, and when I get there, it's going to be better." So I just, I thought, like, see this through, and see where it goes. And, you know, allow myself to get there and then just kind of absorb it, and things will feel better once I arrive. Normally, that's the case when I have felt uncertain about other things and they've unfolded. But unfortunately, this situation, things didn't get better. So I had these three interviews while I was talking with this company, and so three weeks later, when I went down to start of the three people, one had left the company, one had moved into another role, and then I was going to be working for someone who had just started, who I never talked to, it was just like red flag.

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:39

It's almost like a total worst nightmare come true, in some ways, because that's one of the reasons that you stay in those types of roles that are blah for so long. It's like, "Well, this might not be any better. It might be way worse."

Mike Goodman 10:53

And you know, looking back at it, the signs were there that it wasn't going to be the right fit. But I think because of the fear of not having a job or not having anything lined up, I jumped. But even then after jumping, I thought, "Oh, I don't know if this was the right choice." So anyway, I went and I was down there, and literally had zero support at the job in terms of, you know, someone to ask questions to or resources or anything. And after, I didn't even make it at the job eight weeks, I made it just maybe six or seven. And I just decided, "You know what, there was a lot more in between. But I just decided no job is worth this, and this is not a direction that I want to pursue, and I am just going to cut my losses." And I remember saying to my family down there, "I just want to pretend like this never happened. Wipe the slate clean." So I did. I showed up at the office one day and turned on my computer, and I just said, today's my last day. And I left.

Scott Anthony Barlow 11:55

What was that like? Because I think so many of us think about doing that in one way or another, very few of us have that experience, though.

Mike Goodman 12:05

I felt good because I made the decision in my mind and then being able to go and kind of unload my gear, so to say. So, like my computer and any sort of their property, I turned it in. I sent a letter. The person who was my boss was really never around, so when I went, I just, you know, submitted a letter, and then I went and turned on my computer, and then I stopped in the break room, I grabbed a soda, and I walked out. I decided, this is it. And I felt, you know what? I felt, I knew I was going to have challenges ahead, but I knew that I was making the right decision because staying in a job that literally just made me feel ill was not ever going to do anything right for me, so I needed to figure out what was going to do something right and pursue that rather than staying in, you know, it's like a puzzle piece that didn't fit.

Scott Anthony Barlow 12:56

We've used the puzzle analogy more than a few times in our business, but certainly when the puzzle is not fitting in any way whatsoever, and you've already tried hard to make it fit, and sometimes it's impossible and sometimes the change is needed. Not everybody has had that experience of quitting a job without something else lined up. I've done that, you've done that, and a host of other people have done that, but that's only a small portion of the world, and this is a question we get on a regular basis. In fact, we recently had a listener that had sent in a question along those lines, and here, I'll read it off really quick. She had said something, here we go., "HTYC always seems to discourage the idea of quitting a job that is not working before you've accepted an offer and when that feels right. But I'd love to hear an interview with somebody who took an intentional break between jobs without the next thing lined up, and I'm increasingly feeling the instinct to take a life sabbatical." And she goes on to say that, "Hey, I haven't heard when it's okay to give yourself permission to let go, and when it's okay to regroup, and when it's not okay. When does it make it a good idea, essentially? When might be a wiser choice for the long run?" That is what I'd love to dig into with you. Because the reality is, your decision might not be right for everyone, but it was certainly right for you. right?

Mike Goodman 14:18

Yeah, it was what I needed to do. You know, when I left the job that I had been at for several years, you know, I think a lot of people can relate to this too, but between a long commute and days of just total non-stimulation and, you know, un-engagement, I wouldn't feel energized to go home or take a weekend and be like, "I'm going to figure out what I want to do and, like, what my next move is going to be." I would just kind of be, again, like I said the constant blah, you know, I would just kind of be like, "Oh, I'm not there, so I'm going to enjoy my time, but I'm not going to think about anything, because I don't know, and that's just going to make me more obsessed." But then I got to a point where I just thought I can't keep moving forward like this. And if I'm going to be working until I'm 65 to 70 years old, I don't want to waste my whole life being blah. I don't want to be counting down the weeks and the months and, you know, just waiting... life was just passing me by. And I knew if I didn't take a stand and change something, it wasn't going to change. Another year would go by and I'd still be at the same job, in the same boat, feeling the same way. What I did, in that sense, was I jumped headfirst into the pool because I just knew, all right, I'm doing something, but I know if I stay where I am, I will still be here, like, nothing will change. The Florida situation was very different because that never fit from the get go, and that just never felt right. I didn't want to be there. I knew at that point I was fortunate that I had support of family and friends, and I said, you know, I just I need to take some time decompress from all this and figure out what is going to be the right fit and what is going to be the right move for me, because again, working another 30 to 40 years in a situation that I'm not happy with, life is too short, and I don't want to look back at my life and think I had the chance to make a change, and I didn't.

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:14

I like what you said there. You are looking forward and saying, "I don't want to ever be in the place where I had that chance to make a change and I didn't." Like, making moves for avoiding regret is probably one of the times where it's actually okay to avoid something. This is super interesting. And there's a couple areas where I'd love to really go into deep. One, I want to make sure that we're leaving everyone with some ideas of when it's okay, when it's a good idea to quit your job, especially when you don't have something else lined up. And you and I had this conversation the other day when we were talking about what we think it's going to be like after we quit, and what it's actually like after we quit.

Mike Goodman 16:56

Very different.

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:57

Yeah, are often very different. And we've pretty well proven again and again that we, as human beings, are terrible at anticipating the future and what things are actually going to be like in the experience versus what we perceive in advance before it ever comes time. So what I'd love for you to do, and I'm super curious, and I can help share some experiences when I quit, too, without having something else lined up. But what was that like for you? What took place? What did you... what was similar to what you expected? What was far better, far worse?

Mike Goodman 17:26

There were good days and there were bad days. Luckily, there were more good because I would, you know, take some time and kind of explore different options, explore opportunities, and then I'd start seeing things, and I'd feel a sense of excitement and hope, and that made me feel better. But then there are days where I felt like nothing's happening, I'm not doing anything, I don't have anything lined up. And, you know, feeling almost more of a sense of, I guess, almost despair, I'd say, just feeling down. But then when I would have those days, I would think about specifically the Florida job and the Florida office, and I would think, "You know what, this is all going to work out. And I would rather be in this spot now than being back there." And that would make me feel better.

Scott Anthony Barlow 18:12

That's really interesting. And I think that's one of the things that people need to consider before they're making a move like this and leaving a role blah or not, and really understanding the full impact, or at least attempting to understand the full impact. What is driving this in the first place? What are some of the real impacts, too? In your case, like that Florida role, was having real physical impacts on you. It was causing anxiety, and it was making your life a living....

Mike Goodman 18:42

I was a mess, for lack of a better word. I was an absolute mess. And I just knew I'm like, I did not leave the last role to come to something even worse. And I was like, I know there's something better out there. Looking back in hindsight, like if I was ever put in that situation again where I felt rushed, and I wasn't sure that it was the right move or the right opportunity, I wouldn't do it. And, you know, it was definitely a learning experience. And I think it came at a time when I needed the lesson. But again, I would never put myself in a situation like that again, because no job or anything that makes you feel ill or just sick, or just, you know, does not make you feel good is worth it.

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:22

Yeah. And that's what I had for my first professional job experience straight out of college, that same feeling, also the same commute, whereas multiple hours in the car, and you're looking at the people next to you, and they don't look that happy either, and then you're thinking the entire time, like, "I don't even like this job, like, why am I...?"

Mike Goodman 19:40

"What am I doing?"

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:41

"What am I doing?" So totally understand on that. What I think people experience, though, is they experience either what you experienced where it's like, "Hey, this is completely blah, and I know that if I don't do something, then I'm going to be here for a long period of time." The other side of it is, I think what I experienced, too, where I got myself into a situation where it was like, "Look, anything has to be better than this. Anything has to be better than this." It was a little bit of a case of distorted grass is greener, and thinking that, "Hey, any situation will absolutely be better." It became a situation of me wanting to leave, just because I wanted to get the heck out of this situation. So that's the number one thing I would tell people to consider– is what's driving this decision in the first place? And specifically, are you running to something versus running away from something? And if you're just purely running away from something, that's going to make a bad decision. Like, in my case, I was running away from something. Had I left when I first wanted to, I would have 100% been running away from something. And in your case, I would say that that actually wasn't true, which I think is part of the reason why it made it better for you.

Mike Goodman 20:56

The Florida situation I needed to leave, the first situation was something that had, you know, I think that had been on my mind for far before from when I actually did do it. And I think sometimes I try and talk myself into staying, say, for example, at Christmas, we would get a really nice vacation and a gift, and then, you know, so then the fall would come and I think,"Well, you know, the Christmas vacation is really nice, so I'm not going to leave now" and then it got to a point where the things that I stayed for, or that I would talk myself into staying for, were no longer enough. Like, you know, what's a two week vacation? Yeah, it was great. But what if the other 50 weeks of the year are not good? Then it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to stick around for the two weeks off. It just, it got to a point where the reasons I stayed just diminished, you know, less and less, and I just knew that it was time. I needed to go. It was past time. And it wasn't a quick decision. It was something I really thought about for a long time, but then I knew I'm ready. It's time. I need to go.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:04

That kind of invokes the second thing that we really have people take a look at as well is what's going to be required, you know, asking yourself this question, what is going to be required to make a substantial life change? Because for some people, some people really can do this over time, and that's something that I've done at different points in time in my life, even starting this business like, you know, we started it on the side, and did it from 4am to 7am every single morning. And, you know, that worked well. But then I think that there's other periods of time and other people that doesn't make sense for them, that doesn't make sense for them because they either can't put enough focus in making the life change, or it doesn't make sense for them because of any number of other reasons, too. And I think in your case, you've said multiple times in the last 25 minutes here that you had to have that break. You had to have that.

Mike Goodman 22:57

I did. Yeah, I needed that time. I was fortunate that I was able to take it, but I definitely needed it because, you know, in all those years of commuting and then, just like I had mentioned being really disengaged, I didn't take, when I say I had a week off, I wasn't spending the time doing the work in terms of, like, really digging and searching to figure out what is it that I want to be doing? What do I want my life to look like? Because in a week, I was just more or less decompressing from being out of office, and I wasn't taking on anything of that nature. When I had that time in between jobs, it was like, "Well, now, I have this time. I can really figure out what is my next move is going to be, and what do I want that to look like." Because for so long, that wasn't something that I had thought about.

Scott Anthony Barlow 23:45

Yeah, and that makes a ton of sense. And for you, too, from what I know about your situation and everything that we've talked about, you had the runway, and that's where we get into question number three here. Do you have the runway in terms of financial or other to be able to make this a real possibility, or is it going to be a case where you might have to make a couple of jobs like make a shift from one job to another, even though that's not necessarily the perfect job, or one job to another, that's going to free up your time or headspace or something else, so that you can create a different level of focus? But in your case, you had a bit of savings, right?

Mike Goodman 24:05

I did. I was fortunate that I was able to take that time.

Scott Anthony Barlow 24:22

What did you do to put yourself in that place?

Mike Goodman 24:25

Over the last several years that I was in the job, before I left, I had gotten some, you know, annual increases, and there was a period where I had gotten a promotion. So what I would do is, every year, I would just put away the difference, so I was essentially living off my original salary. Over the years, I had put a decent amount of money away for, like, a rainy day fund, so to say, or, you know, a couple months of living expenses. And then I was fortunate during my gap where I wasn't working, that I had a supportive family so that I was able to have, you know, a place to stay, and that helps tide my savings along, that much longer.

Scott Anthony Barlow 25:04

Lower living experiences for a period of time.

Mike Goodman 25:07

Exactly.

Scott Anthony Barlow 25:08

Very cool. That's the question that everybody needs to ask themselves when they're considering leaving, not to something else. One, do you have that financial runway, whether through savings or other income coming in or something else? And then, usually, when I'm working with people, one on one, we're figuring out, okay, what is the likelihood of you being able to move into something else in addition to what it's actually going to take, and always budget worst case scenario, I think everybody has a tendency to look at, "well, I think it's going to be three months, and I can get a job in three months, no problem. " And we're overly optimistic in a lot of those cases, versus, it might realistically take a long period of time. How long did it take you?

Mike Goodman 25:50

It was over six months. Maybe more like eight months. It took a while. So it had happened, I allowed myself a little period where I just took some time in the beginning. And then I thought, "all right, I'm going to jump in now." So I took, you know, the first, it was a month or two off to just kind of resettle and decompress, and then, probably, then from when I started really doing the work about six months. And that was, you know, the holiday time things tend to slow down. And some interview processes can take quite a while from start to finish. Yeah, you have to allow that time because there's just no way of knowing how long it's going to take.

Scott Anthony Barlow 26:25

Yeah, and generally, we'll have people budget whatever time they need away. Like, in your case, you said, "Look, I need this month, month and a half, two month time to be able to decompress." And that's 100% okay. Like, what Laura is asking in her question, if she needs that deeper compression time, that's great. And then additionally, she should allow minimum of six months, just in case, because I've personally been in a situation where it's taken much longer than what I anticipated, and it is uber-stressful, especially if you're in a situation where you have either a family or spouse or other things like that, that's not just stressful for you, but it's stressful for them, as well. That actually happened, geez, I probably like eight or so years ago to me too, when I was transitioning from a job, I felt like I couldn't take it anymore, and ended up leaving. We had savings, was able to get job offers, already had a number of interviews in the works at the works at the point in time, and I left and everything like that. So it wasn't like just leaving completely clean, but there was more to the story too. Because even though we had some savings, even though we had about six plus months savings, easily, even though those other things are in place, it's still, in hindsight, I don't know was the right decision based on everything else we had going on. We were trying to pay down a bunch of debt, and that ended up putting that on hold. And then for Alyssa, my wife, was really stressful for her too, because she has all these people that are asking her, like, every time they turn around, like, "Hey, this guy have a job yet?" And everything else along those lines, too.

Mike Goodman 27:55

It's very stressful. And I think going along with it, you have to be prepared and be willing to give up a certain degree of control, because you can control what you put into the situation in your efforts, but you can't necessarily control the outcome, or you really can't control how long it's going to take.

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:12

You can have a lot of influence it, but ultimately, you don't get to decide whether that person's on vacation and whether you get the job offer in writing this week or three weeks from now. And sometimes those things just don't line up perfectly. If you've only got three months of money in the bank and you're dependent upon that happening, and your spouse is looking at you, going, "Hey, you've promised it would be okay", then that's not going to create a great situation for you. So that ends up being the fourth question that we would advise everybody to ask. Who else has a vested interest in this decision, and are they okay with it? Are they on board? And do they understand all these implications, too?

Mike Goodman 28:49

Yeah, having that support can make all the difference.

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:51

Yeah, absolutely. I want to really quick just run through those questions again here, for anybody that is finding themselves in this place where they're considering like you were, is this something I just need to do? Is this something that I should do, and is this actually a good idea for me in my situation? So ask yourself, number one, do you have that runway? Do you have that savings, or do you have more liabilities than you're going to be able to afford at the time? Number two, why is it that you want to leave in the first place? What is driving this decision? Is it 100% emotion, thinking that is going to be better, or is it something that you're able to run to, versus running away from something? And if it's purely running away from something, probably not a great idea. And then question number three, who else has a vested interest in this decision and are they 100% on board, or at least enough on board and committed to making the same decision? Then last question is, for you personally, what do you need in terms of breakthroughs to make this substantial life change? Because it is a substantial life change. I don't want people to underestimate that. Anything that you'd add to that Mike for people to consider? You know, having you done this yourself in a couple of capacities.

Mike Goodman 30:05

Think it through and be prepared. I think, you know, having that support, like I just said, is really is important, and just looking at it from different ways. Like, are you okay with it? If it's not going to happen for six months, it's going to take longer. Worst case scenario, are you okay with still making that decision? Just weigh... Look at the different sides and weigh the outcomes.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:26

That is phenomenal advice. And the cool thing is, even if you decide it's not a good idea, then I think that there's plenty of other alternatives. You can work on getting what we call a bridge job, which it might not be the perfect job, but it might be something that is vastly improved, and either maybe it's not the state of blah, and you're getting to beginning to use more of your skill sets and what you enjoy, but maybe it's not the perfect thing, if you will. Or maybe it's a case where it's freeing up more of your headspace or more of your time so that you can devote some time or headspace or bandwidth, like you were talking about earlier, Mike, to figuring out what is going to be a great situation for you.

Mike Goodman 31:05

Exactly. Yeah. What does that look like? Figuring out what's the right move, or what's the next move going to be and what's going to make it better.

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:11

As people are going through that figure it out type process, any other advice that you'd give to them once they have decided, "Hey, look, I need to quit. It is the right decision for me, and I'm going to use part of that time to determine what is next and what's going to be a great situation for me."?

Mike Goodman 31:26

Allow yourself the time to don't jump into a situation just because it comes up. Learn from my mistakes. Don't jump into something just because it's there. Make sure it's the right move. Because if you've made the decision to leave where you were to find something better, see it through. Don't jump into something, you know, a lateral move, or the frying pan into the fire, for lack of a better word, just take the time and discover what it is that is going to make you happy, and seek it out, because it is out there.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:02

Most of the episodes you've heard on Happen To Your Career showcase stories of people that have taken the steps to identify and land careers that they are absolutely enamored with, that match their strengths, and are really what they want in their lives. If that's something that you're ready to begin taking steps towards, that's awesome. And we want to figure out how we can help. So here's what I would suggest. Take the next five seconds to open up your email app and email me directly. I'm gonna give you my personal email address, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just email me and put 'Conversation' in the subject line. And when you do that, I'll introduce you to someone on our team who can have a super informal conversation with and we'll figure out the very best type of help for you, whatever that looks like. And the very best way that we can support you to make it happen. So send me an email right now with 'Conversation' in the subject line.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:49

Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Speaker 3 33:00

So much of it has been trusting my body, trusting my gut, trusting that when I'm fearful or anxious, that's just an emotion. But my heart is actually telling me what I'm interested in, my heart is actually telling me what I want to do.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:17

Riddle me this, what if being too good that your job is the reason you need to escape? Maybe you do the work three times faster than everyone else, so you are just being given more and more and more and more. Or maybe you're constantly getting praised by leadership for being the highest performer, but it's making the team resent you. Maybe you're an educator whose relator strength causes your students to adore you and want to be around you, but you're beginning to feel overwhelmed by the weight of it all.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:48

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep and you get it automatically. Even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week, adios. I'm out.