What to Consider Before Quitting

Welcome to Navigating Your Career, the only podcast that blends personal development, professional skills and psychology to help you get happy at work and live the life you want. If you want to stop feeling stuck and start feeling better, this is the place for you. I’m your host, Melissa Lawrence. Let’s get started.

Welcome to this week’s episode of Navigating Your Career. Now working in corporate America for 20 years, I definitely had my ups and downs when it came to my career. There were times that I scrolled indeed in LinkedIn looking for that job that was going to be more fulfilling. And I remember at one point I was ready to walk away completely and rely on savings and faith that I would find another opportunity in time. The work climate seemed so unbearable between a challenging work culture, a crappy boss and not doing work I loved.

It was hard to convince myself every day to stick with it. So you’ll hear me talk a lot about the signs that you should change your job, change companies that you’re ready for something more. But this week I want to talk about the things you need to know before jumping ship, why you should take a break from the scroll and figure this out before making a move. Now, as we close out the year and look to 2022, you might be thinking you’re going to take your holiday break and then start fresh with a new job search at the first of the year.

And before you do that, I want to help you determine if that is really the best idea for you.

Right now, I am going to share four things that you need to know before you consider quitting your job. And toward the end, I’m going to tell you how you can get my guide with these four things and the prompts to help you figure them out for free. So stick with me. So let’s just be real for a minute. It’s a hot, hot market, right?

Companies are having a hard time retaining talent, retaining high performers like yourself. So you have a lot of opportunity. A lot of companies are paying top dollar for talent, sign on bonuses. You name it, trying to entice you to jump ship and go to where they are. Last quarter, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.4 million people quit their jobs, 4.4 million.

And for six straight months, the number of people quitting their jobs is higher than it was pre pandemic. So it can be tempting to see what’s out there, how much more money you could make if you could snag yourself a better title. I get it. You spent a lot of time to get where you are. And now it seems like you’ve either outgrown your role, you don’t have a future or you’re wondering if what you’re doing now is really what you want to do long term now, the problem with jumping to indeed, and LinkedIn is you’re not addressing the root of why you’re unhappy where you are.

You just know that you want a change without taking that deep dive, you can fall into the grass, is greener on the other side, trap and end up exactly where you are right now after a lot of headache. So take it from me. I help my clients find their ideal career path all day long. And I’ve been doing this for years. They come to me because they are at a cross roads.

They are unsure what their purpose is, how to get their skills used, how to get to that next level, what their path should be, ultimately, how to be happy in their career, to know they’re in the right path for them without sacrificing their values, who they are, their family, and what they want for their life. They want to have that bigger purpose. And if you listen to last week’s episode, I talked about some of the different paths that come up through the process that I take my clients through, and sometimes they get happy where they are without even changing their job.

Sometimes it’s a promotion. Sometimes it’s a new business or a new company.

But something really cool that happens with my process is my clients will figure out for themselves that they will find themselves in this place where they know how to navigate their current work situation. They feel better about themselves and their future. They feel more empowered and in control of their career. And when this happens, it’s almost like they don’t want what they thought that they did because their unhappiness was a distraction from what was really going on, who they really are. They didn’t know how lost they had really become.

So when you jump ship too soon, you end up repeating the same negative thought patterns. You have a honeymoon phase, and then you end up right where you were. To avoid this, I want you to stop focusing on the problems that currently exist, but instead who you are and what you want, what gets you excited? What makes you tick? What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail when you haven’t experienced fulfillment at work?

It can be easy to think that it’s not possible that it’s a pipe dream, that it’s something that is only attainable for the few, like chasing a unicorn. But that’s just not true. I’ve seen it. I help people with this every day. You can have the career you want, but more importantly, more important than status or title is how you feel and the experience that you can have in your life.

You can have the title and the status. Sure. But if you don’t also feel amazing and content and happy and empowered and like you’re in your zone of genius, you’re making the difference you want to make, then you aren’t going to be fulfilled. If you’re trading success in your career for being a parent or vice versa, then you’re not going to be fulfilled. So I want you to have the promotion and to have the status you deserve to have the home life that you want.

I want you to be happy. Also, I want you to feel good about yourself, to feel confident and like you know yourself so well that you stop questioning yourself. You make decisions with confidence. You don’t doubt yourself. You stop overthinking.

That is where it’s possible for you. So before moving into a new role, I want you to consider these four things. What are your skills? Your skills are those things that you know how to do that you’re trained to do that you’re qualified to do and educated in. These are the things that you likely put on your resume.

Number two, I want you to look at your strengths. What are your strengths? Your strengths incorporate the things you know you’re good at, but also your character strengths, the things that are part of who you are that you may not know of. Number three, what are your interests? An interest may not include your skills and strengths.

This is why people feel unfulfilled in their careers. Their interests have changed, so it’s time to look at what you like now, what is your desired lifestyle? If your job includes your strengths and skills and interests, but isn’t meeting your lifestyle needs as far as culture, location, work style, and demands, it isn’t going to be the best match. You have to know where you’re going, not just what you’re running away from. Knowing these four things is the beginning, but it will help you know what you need if you decide to move to another job.

Now, here’s what to do next. Make a list of all of the attributes you want in your career based on the four things. Once you have that list, do a gap assessment to compare your current role with the list you came up with. Identify what is missing. If your list has some overlap, it may be possible to negotiate your current role responsibilities to better tailor them to your current interests, and you can listen to an episode.

I have it’s episode 34 on Changing What You Do without changing your title for my specific process and guidance for how to actually change the responsibilities and the type of work you’re doing before you get that promotion so that you can be more fulfilled. Now, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of doing this work. It is the thing that is going to provide you sustainable, meaning, long term fulfillment. If you take a move for superficial reasons, it isn’t addressing the root cause and you don’t need to choose one or the other.

You can have both.

You can have everything you want in your career and the lifestyle and perks. The key is to know what you want and to create a strategic plan to make it happen. This is where I come in now, if you want to guarantee that you take your career to the next level that you know your ideal career path and get happy in the process, then reach out and schedule a consultation with me and we can explore how we might be able to work together. And if you want to get your hands on a free resource to help you put this podcast episode to work, I have a free guide for you that walks through this process and has some guidance for how to determine each of these four things for yourself.

It takes all of the guesswork out, so to get your hands on it, head to my Website www.melissamlawrence.com/4-things I’ll put a link in the show notes.

You can download it right away and get to work now. Have a great rest of 2021. I hope you enjoy the new year. It’s going to be a great next year and I will talk to you next week.

Coaching with me is the best way to guarantee you get happy at work and achieve your career and life goals. Getting started is easy. Head over to melissamlawrence.com to learn more and apply. It is the first step to get you from feeling stuck to knowing exactly what you want and have the tools to make it a reality.

I will be by your side the entire way.