Final Lesson: Make Changes Today

In my case, this is the most important lesson.

When it comes to time to make changes, most of us retreat back to our comfort zones and hoping tomorrow is going to be better… I did that a few years ago when I had a nerve break down working on a high profile D.C project. I should have quitted this job back then but I didn’t. I held onto this job until now. Although the change came a few years later, I am still very happy that I finally did something about it.

One thing I learned is that making changes is something pretty mechanical. You just have to sit down, work out a plan and execute the plan. Here is a list of few things I did before I decided to quit the job:

1. About a year ago, I started to stuff my cash under the mattress. Ok, not exactly… But having an emergency cash fund that I can depend on for 7 to 10 months made the quitting process a whole lot easier. Saving is a habit. So regardless whether you are going to make changes or not, it’s a great idea to stash away some emergency cash each month. According to financial advisors, everyone needs an emergency fund that is worth 3 – 6 months of living expenses.
2. I don’t want to jump from a miserable job to another miserable job. I took some time to do some soul searchings and think about what my next step was going to be. Why did the current job make me so unhappy? Was it because of the environment? The boss? The co-workers? The type of work I do? The hours I worked? Well, I like what I do ‘cause it’s fun, challenging and 95% of my co-workers from the past 10 years were great! I concluded that it was because of the unstable life style due to travel and the long hours made my life so miserable. Thus, I came up with two criteria for the next job: a) No travel b) normal hours
3. Most of people will try to find another job before quitting the current job. I thought about that too. However, with my crazy hours and travel situation, I wasn’t able to focus on getting a new job. So I decided that it would be the best for me to quit and then concentrating on job searching.
4. The hardest part: Just Do It!

I know my case is kind of simply to deal with and required only 4 steps. But if you are not happy with what you do everyday and thinks that it is going to take 50 steps to make changes and reach your goal because of your complex lifestyle, then start taking step #1 today. One day, you will reach the 50th step.