Is It Time to Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Passion?

This hunger to find and follow our life’s purpose as humans is intense! And in my profession, I’ve coached hundreds of people from many walks of life – HR professionals, tech grads, teachers and fitness instructors — who have wrestled with this question: is it time to quit my job and follow my passion?

This article will be different from my usual stuff, but it’s a big part of my daily conversations, and I had to bring this to more people.

I’m going to share a lot of non-sugar-coated information to help you make the best decision in the long run. If you can buckle your seat for this intense ride with me, I promise this article will help you plan and eliminate some of those problems and propel you forward in a better direction without getting blindsided.

As always, please use your discernment – I am here to help broaden your perspective, but know that your journey is yours. 🙂

The Most Brutal Consequence of Quitting Too Soon

Let me start by playing the devil’s advocate and talking about not quitting (yet). Because a common and unfortunate trap I’ve seen myself and others fall into is the superficial hype to “manifest the next million dollars” and “take a leap of faith”.

I’m all for manifesting your dreams; it’s a big component of my work, too. But I also teach my clients to get out of toxic manifestation ideas and make actual progress.

It breaks my heart when I hear about the severe consequences for some of my clients. They might be under thousands (or even tens of thousands) of dollars of debt because they continued to believe that things would miraculously turn around in their endeavours.

By the time they figure out it’s not happening, they’ve lost so much money, confidence and time that it feels pointless to keep going.

Please DON’T just “do it”

I’m also all for breaking out of perfectionism and taking messy action. But here’s the nuance.

When we leave a salaried job to pursue entrepreneurial endeavours, we experience a big lifestyle adjustment.

For one, the new business doesn’t profit enough to match the old salary (in most cases, it doesn’t profit at all).

So you either end up rapidly pulling from your savings, or cutting back so drastically that you begin to feel all kinds of resentment, shame, loneliness, for not being able to afford the once “little” joys of life.

And two, the business revenue changes every month. The moment you start getting comfortable, you may discover your business is seasonal or has dipped because of some unforeseen blind spot.

While it’s just the nature of running your own business, it’s not the type of pressure a salaried person knows how to deal with (it took me years to understand how to pivot my finances to accommodate the dips).

This big income dip, paired with fluctuating months, creates a big shock effect on most people. It throws us into survival mode.

Most people move from hustling in their day jobs to hustling day and night in their passions.

It’d be amazing if your business did blossom overnight.

But I’d rather you be the miracle in your own life by having self-grace now. Versus struggling and desperately seeking a way out later.

How? Keep reading.

Self-grace before God-grace

The typical advice of having six months of savings isn’t enough when we’re talking about quitting a job to step into the uncharted territories of your passion. Businesses usually take 3–5 years to stabilize.

So first and foremost – if you’re thinking of going cold turkey – make sure you have at least 12-18 months of savings reserved.

And the second thing worth doing is simplifying your lifestyle now. There’s always room to spend less, even for those who are on top of their money management game. Can you identify the places where you don’t need to spend so much money? As well as the places you aren’t willing to cut back from, even if unemployed?

This way, you can be intentional and not hit survival mode the very first month your paycheque doesn’t come. God helps those who help themselves.

Here’s something else I’d tell you.

Short term, fine, one can somehow get through the beans and rice budget. But when this income dip prolongs for years, it leads to 3 consequences:

1. Growing regret and self-criticism (ie not trusting yourself, thus long-run losing the ability to make decisions for business or life).
2. Piling so much pressure on your passion that it begins to feel like a burden (and as a result, saying yes to projects and opportunities for the sake of money, becoming gimmicky in your sales, etc).
3. Returning to the corporate world out of financial necessity (ie a scar of having “failed” and reliving the boxed life you thought you’d said goodbye to for good).

Not to forget – jealousy towards others who are doing well in their careers, a growing sense of shame for not being able to “afford” being a part of social settings, and then some.

Now that I’ve brought some key challenges to the surface, let’s create the plan to overcome them.

My Top 5 Tips for Navigating the Transition from Your Day Job to Living Your Passion

#1 – Look out for your future self.

I get it, you can’t stand work for even another second.

And I’m no one to stop you. After all, I quit cold turkey and was unemployed for over a year! Looking back, I wouldn’t change that. BUT… I can only say so because I had huge privileges (support from family and husband). Most people don’t have that safety net, and “leaping and manifesting” isn’t a plan.

I can guarantee without even knowing you that the part of you that wants to “just jump” is not thinking long-term. And we want to set you up for success – not by dumping the stress on your future self, rather by alleviating it for them.

So, alongside working towards a generous reserve of savings like we discussed above, soften the transition as much as possible.

Consider negotiating the contract to reduce hours with your employer. BUT… if you’re like me and unemployment sounds more enticing right now than continuing your job, try this next suggestion instead.

#2 – Consider a parallel reality kind of job.

Can you find something that you’d do in a parallel life that still pays the bills? For me, it was working at a bookstore. It was minimum wage, but it brought in some money in an extremely dry season in my business.

Plus, it scratched an itch that I carried since childhood!

Maybe for you, that’s Uber driving, joining an aquarium, working as a su-chef or hosting dance classes. The purpose is to ease the transition and dare I say, even enjoy it!

#3 – Learn marketing (before you need it).

Before you go “ick” and run away, remember, this is me being your big (or little) sister and trying to save you from some of the biggest roadblocks that you will sooner or later have to overcome.

And you will thank me for this tip.

If you are scared of marketing or get sick at the thought of sales, there’s very little distance you’ll be able to cover as an entrepreneur.

There IS a healthy way to market, and a non-gimmicky, genuine way to sell products and services. That, of course, is a much deeper conversation, and I’m happy to sit down with you over a laser-focused Pick My Brain session.

But the point is, most people moving into any entrepreneurial pursuit underestimate how much marketing matters.

If you don’t believe in your skills or services to be able to talk about them as if you were talking about a favourite movie or vacation trip, it’s going to be hard for people to believe in your work, either.

So, if possible, do the hard thing now – build those skills either at work (ask for a sales role or client-facing position), or, like I did, practice in a low-stakes job such as at the bookstore, where I sold memberships every day to the regular readers.

#4 – Expect imposter syndrome and deal with it early.

When it comes to dealing with imposter syndrome, the best policy is honesty.

If you’re in training, say it. If your product or shop is undergoing beta testing, say it.

I cannot count the number of times in my sessions (even now), I’ll tell a client, I have no idea where we’re going with this.

It takes the pressure off of me to “perform like the great coach they expect me to be” and just meet them as the human beings they are.

This is also the pivotal moment where the Universe usually inspires my coaching to move in a direction that wouldn’t have happened had I been determined to have all the answers myself.

Your people need your services exactly where you’re at, not where your mind thinks you should be (read: best of the best, which is great to aspire for but not on day 1!).

#5 – Don’t go in thinking this is “it”.

Your passion may light you up for just a season, or maybe the rest of your life! Or maybe, something in between those two timelines.

Go in with all of your heart, ready to enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts. Because just in case you change your mind, it won’t be a failure or another identity crisis, but rather a happy ending and the opportunity to explore something new, again!

Concluding Thoughts

Even if you set up your finances and build your skills, there will be hard days. But there are ways to experience hardship that don’t require us to lose dignity, confidence or traumatize ourselves.

So I hope this article encourages you to move forward with clearer eyes.

And even if it takes a bit longer than our nervous systems would like, I trust that long-term, your tolerance for the discomfort will be much smaller than the burden of a rash decision. Cheering for your purpose-driven life!

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