Why I quit a desk job to follow my dreams

To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality. – Anita Roddick

In a world where everything we do is so fast paced, it is impossible to not have our dreams materialise. We are caught up with ‘pleasing’ others, conforming to patterns that are rather detrimental to the growth of our creativity. We’re only living from paycheck to paycheck. Regardless of how your present ‘job’ is treating you, you will at some point lose the feeling of being content and happy with what you are doing with your time. If you are doing what you love, then this is probably not for you, but read anyway. From what I have learnt from a very young age from my entrepreneurial dad, there are a million ways to make money. Only time that is lost is never coming back to you. A billion dollars cannot bring back yesterday now, can it?

With the Olympics at Rio coming to a close (about a week ago), the media was (and still is) all over the two Indian girls who have brought laurels to the nation of India. A great feat in itself, all this would not have been possible if their parents weren’t supportive enough to let them pursue their dreams. Often times, too much importance is laid upon performing well in studies, which slowly lulls the creativity found in children, until it dies a sad and unfortunate death. How many inventors, painters, poets, writers, dreamers and thinkers have we lost to the ever growing 9 to 5? Sure, you can always put time in it as a hobby, something you can fall back on when the burden of living mediocre falls heavily on your shoulders, but it always leaves you wanting for more.

“The biggest risk isn’t that you’re going to try something and it’s not going to work out. The biggest risk is that you wake up a year from now, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and wish you would have done things different.” – Scott Dinsmore

After spending 2 and a half years at a desk job and coming to realise that I was just another disposable cog in a system that does not care for your life, I had to call it quits to pursue life differently from what I was accustomed to. Yes, there’s no pay check that comes at the end of every month, but there is so much meaning to life when you take a step back, buckle up and dive into doing something that you love. My biggest direction came when I stumbled upon Chelsea Dinsmore‘s ‘How to Get Unstuck: 5 Practical Tips to Move Forward Even When You Don’t Know How.‘ Do take time to read the article from the Chief Inspiration Officer at Live Your Legend, who pushes on to take up the legacy that her husband left behind.

Often times we do not follow what our heart tells us because the mind starts bringing in its many doubts and we quit even before we start. The greatest leaders, innovators and world changers made failure a habit; and in this continued, enduring battle with failure they came out being more successful than anyone would’ve imagined. So the question is not how, but when? As my graduation speaker finished his keynote address, he ended with the one line that has forever changed how I approach life: ‘Fail young; it is cheaper that way.’

So what are you doing with your time?

Update: Read the continuation to this article called ‘5 reasons why I quit my job‘ where I list out my reasons to quit.