There are plenty of articles out there about a number of people who have quit their jobs to work on their passion and get further along in their realm of creativity. Most times, we find common ground for why they left a well paying job to pursue their dreams. If you haven’t read my previous post, please read my article ‘Why I quit a desk job to follow my dreams‘  before you go through the reasons behind why I decided to quit my job.

1. Getting comfortable

To give you an idea of what a normal week at work was for me, it would start on a Monday with us receiving ‘x’ number of sales reports from a large pool of distributors and wholesalers, which would be processed by the systems and later would be analysed for any discrepancies that the human eye could catch. This would later be sent out as another bunch of consolidated reports that would be used further down the line to prep for the season ahead. This was all that happened, day in and day out, and to my surprise, I was getting disturbingly comfortable with it.

2. Losing sight of life’s goals

All of us begin life with goals, dreams and timelines within which we see ourselves achieving them. Getting into this comfortable rut made it impossible to even find these goals that were all in plain-sight before. There were times when even trying to look for them felt futile because someone else’s goals were now my goals and we were all in the process of building someone else’s dreams. This thought alone was enough to make me realise that I wasn’t using my time in the best way possible. Being comfortable makes us all this way and more times than not, we push our dreams out the window using excuses to cover for the lack of drive from within.

3. My creativity had begun to shut down

For as far as I can remember, I was the kind of person who would take things apart and put them together. My grandpa always dreamt that I would take up engineering someday (he was kinda shocked when I took up commerce) and for the most part of my childhood, I tried to create things with whatever my hands could find – since making something always brought joy and some level of satisfaction (I am all DIY still). When I took up music, it wasn’t as easy to channel this creativity into what I did, but it was another outlet that I could use to express myself. After landing a corporate job, it was becoming increasingly difficult to allocate time to music or any other type of creative expression – spending close to 9 hours (and sometimes as much as 13 hours), coming home drained and wasting away watching television or reading up current affairs. Even as I near 5 months since I’ve quit, it is increasingly difficult to commit to ‘times’ of creative expression; but I’m getting there, slowly but surely.

4. Frustration

Even though I claimed to be a ‘team player’ on my résumé (and I can be to some extent), I found it easier to work alone on projects; this helped with being able to deliver good quality and also made it easier to be accountable for my actions. What I could not handle however, were the numerous restrictions (with technology and it’s use) that were placed that did not allow me to use tools that were freely available to make work easier/faster for me. You cannot put me in a corner and expect me to stay there without erupting like a volcano. I wouldn’t entirely qualify to be called a rebel, but being arm-twisted is something I could not take calmly. As a side note, my first and last managers were the best people who’ve been a pleasure to work with. Everyone in between just added to the frustration.

5. My passion had turned into a hobby

Probably the biggest reason why I knew that I had to leave was seeing how I could no longer pursue my passion with all my heart; it was a hobby that I had pushed for the weekend (and that too only the second half of the weekend, yikes!). Not finding the time to be able to practise my craft or being so bone dead tired that I couldn’t even pick up the guitar, were quite frankly the biggest reasons why I felt like I was leading a very unfulfilling life. No amount of money can compensate for that void I felt without being able to expressive myself creatively (this may not affect you if you still haven’t discovered yourself or if you’ve chosen a different path, which I respect).

In conclusion, all I’d like to say is, if your passion is to lead, go out there and be the best at it. If your passion is to learn, do not let anything stop you from achieving your dreams. To maintain balance in this world, we need each and every one of us to do what we’re called to do – by design, all of us were made with a purpose. Do not for a single moment let yourself drift into something that you do just for the money (unless that is all you want to do!)