Why You Need To Quit Your Job ASAP

Hey everyone, so I've been on Steem around a month now, and I feel this is probably a fair time to wait before expressing my controversial opinions. I'm very involved with life, what's going on in the world, and what shouldn't be happening. I recently discovered this cheesy asf, but thought provoking video and it inspired me to share my story with you all, and why and how you should be quitting your 'dayjob' and start living. I am aware this isn't your standard 'How To' guide and it definitely isn't structured like one, but I can promise you it will inspire you to tell your boss to shove it for the greater good.

This post might get a bit intense at points, so brace yourselves!

Who Are You, Really?

Call me young and naive all you want, but that hasn't stopped me from noticing that the majority of people in adult life all share the same goal and lack the same thing - wanting to clock out of their shift so they can go for a pint, and having no personal goals or ambition. Just shutting up and getting through this next 3 weeks of 6 8-12 hour shifts, so you can go for a week abroad somewhere. But it's all worth it, just for that precious time to yourself, right?

Wrong. Think about it. Those times, where you've not got a care in the world, where you can put your feet up and just do whatever YOU need to do to make yourself feel on top of the world, they are the best times of your life. The times where you can fool around with your friends and family, explore new territory, or just simply let your hair down and unwind, are when the best new memories are created. It's these times that are irreplaceable in your mind. These are the times when you are honestly you, allowing you to find your true self and discover what you really care about. You are you. You are alive.
So why do we allow ourselves to compress this time to as minimal as we do? Think about it, if you're working 9-5 (often with overtime), 5 days a week, with 2 to spare,that's 5 of your days a week dedicated to nothing other than furthering someone else's dreams. That leave you 2 days a week of free time, and by the time the week is over, it's more than likely you'll be too knackered to do anything other than relax.

Leaving you with a never ending want for something more. You feel empty. So you deal with this emptiness by, not fuelling it and becoming less empty, but by covering it with a mask. A mask of a false sense of freedom. You repeat the same mundane lifestyle day in day out, for the promise of some time off inbetween. You do this until you're 70+. And when you're 70+, it is only then, that you look back and think "I wasted my life".

"But we need money. Money is what makes the world go around after all. What would we do for money without our day jobs? We can't live without money. We need our jobs to pay the rent."

"Do You Ever Feel You're Being Cheated?"

It's because you are. In many ways, every single day. In fact, you're whole life is nothing, nothing, but a lie. It's all false. Well, okay, maybe not all of it is 100% false, but hear me out here. You've been dowsed in lies your entire life. How so? Boy, where do I start...

You do not need money to survive. Yes, you may need money to keep a roof over your head and keep up to date with all your responsibilities, but do you really need everything else? The way society is designed, is so that the average 9-5 worker will find themselves with plenty of disposable income, and very little disposable time.

Therefore we find ourselves more inclined to spend £3 on a coffee, multiple times a day, rather than just pre make a flask in the mourning. Or perhaps you aren't a coffee drinker. That sandwich you just paid £3.50 for? What if I told you, you could make a enough sandwiches for every day of the week with the same amount of money and an additional half hour or so. It doesn't sound like much at first. But think about it. £3.50 x 5 is around £18 a week, £18 x 4 is just under £75. If you get paid the minimum wage, which in the UK is £7.20, and work 8 hour days that's only £57. Not to mention anything else you might spend money on like travel to work, drinks and snacks. That's nearly 2 full days of work a month, just to ensure you are able to go to work, again not sounding much, until you add it all up to 24 days of our 365 a year...

It's little things like this that add up over time, and there is so many little things such as taxes, bills, rent, uniform fees, fines, broken down cars, theft, and any other slap in the face you can think of. We think we are paying for these things for money which is fine, and normal. But we're not. Money is time. A lot of time in many of our cases. We are paying for these things with our lives, not printed paper that we are told 'controls' the world.

You Only Get One Life, Stop Wasting It

One life. That's all you've got. And I know it sounds harsh, but a lot of the time, no one realizes that until it is too late. If you have access to a computer right now, you're so much more privileged then you could ever imagine. It's hard to picture unless you've been out there and experienced it firsthand, but there are many places in this world where people simply don't have a fair chance in life. Some people even struggle for basic access to food and water. So why is it, that some of these people who are living on the absolute bare necessities of life, are some of the happiest people alive?

It can be compared to something everybody will experience at some point in their lives, tragedy. When you're at your lowest point in your life, you learn to appreciate what you have had in the past, you stop overlooking the little things and stop taking things for granted. Your mind adopts a new way of thinking, and you begin to savour every moment in life, as time feels much more precious. You start to live with more caution about where you project your time and efforts. And you start to spend more time focusing on what truly matters to you.

Let me tell you a bit about me, and my experience with the situation. I'm as young and inexperienced as they come to be frank, I don't know very much about anything. I'm just a kid to a lot of people. But for someone my age, I've been through all I needed to, to make my mind up and truly know why I was put on this planet. We're all here for a reason, and that reason was not to wash plates for some posh twonks that are willing to pay £30 for a fake lobster salad and then complain there wasn't enough lettuce on the plate. Yes, I do understand this is how the world works, and people are required to do these jobs, otherwise the world would fall. But that's not what this article is about, I couldn't care less about who's going to flip your burger at Maccy D's. What I care about is who's going to perform that life saving operation, or create that medicine you simply would not be here without.

I only worked part time from the start, as soon as I left education I was awake to the world of work, and it actually hit me as a shock and really depressed me for a while at first when I realized how trapped I was. I'm strong willed, and no matter how many times I was pressured into going full time by my colleagues or family, I always stood my ground. Why on earth would I want to work full time washing plates? Maybe if I was remotely interested in cooking for the rest of my life (which is totally fine, if cooking is your passion, then go for it, but not in a pub kitchen), but I was literally there to earn the money to get to college.

I would look at my older colleagues killing themselves with absolutely insane hours daily, their lives never changing. The exact same pile of shit every single god damned day. And for what? So they could pay the rent, feed their 4 kids (at aged 25) that they would maybe see once a week for a few hours if they were lucky, And it got me. It really got me, I became obsessed and the only thing I could imagine was that was what my life was going to be like in the future if I didn't start doing something about it now. I got it into my head, and once it was there, there was no getting rid of it. I just couldn't perform these mundane tasks anymore, knowing that there is so much more for me out there.

"Are You Satisfied?"

After 2 years of trying my best to zip my mouth and get on with it for the sake of money, literally at the end of last year, I went through an experience which set me off on a downward spiral and really messed me up. I kinda had a mid life crisis at 19... I stopped going out, I pulled out of uni, and you guessed it, for the first time in my life I thought "You know what, fuck money". That was in January I quit. I have been practically unemployed since, minus the odd job (it's about finding ways to make things work).We're just reaching April. And guess what I'm currently getting ready for?

My trip with a band to Portugal to make a documentary about them and film their performance. It's going to be an incredible experience, and in the long run, really bloody good for my portfolio and CV. Something there is absolutely no way on earth I would not be attending if I hadn't of quit my job. I'm going to be spending 5 days with some of the best people I could imagine, essentially 'working', I'm just not being paid for it yet, BUT why should that matter? Could you imagine if I had turned down the offer of to experience a music festival abroad and the chance to build some amazing friendships, simply because there was no payout? I'd be an absolute fool to turn down something I love doing because of profit.

So Why Do You Do It?

Everybody has something. That one thing that really gets them going and they could talk about for hours without getting bored. The one thing deep down inside, you know you were meant to do. You don't feel like this for no reason. You're here for a reason, and you might not have even discovered that thing yet, but don't worry. No matter who you are, where you are in the world or what you do for a living, there is something out there just waiting for you to pick it up and think "this is me, this is what I love, this is what I want to do with my life."

It could be anything. It might not be something creative like me with filmmaking, it might be that you actually really enjoy your public service job or 9-5 office job and that's what you want to do. That's great, and there is nothing wrong with that. But there is something wrong with you. But don't worry, it's not your fault. How is anybody expected to have any ambition to ever step up and start doing things for themselves, when everything we are surrounded by is telling us to do the exact opposite?

It's time to start living for you. This is your life, your responsibility. With anything else you only get one chance at, you give it your all in fear of failure. We've only got one chance at life. So why aren't we giving it our all? Now I'm not suggesting to forget money altogether, because we all know that's practically impossible. It's about thinking outside of the box to make what you have work.

I had enough of the mundane expectations pushed onto me by society, of learning to drive, finding my own place, working full time. So I stopped caring what everyone else thinks. I am my own person with my own goals and passions. I know what I want out of my life, and now it my time to work my bloody arse off and go get it. I've spent 19 years doing nothing but fooling around, and I'm ready to take the next step into the journey of truly making myself happy.

Getting Out

It's always easier said than done though. And that's everybody's excuse. An excuse we keep using, over and over, until again, we reach the point where it is too late to change anything. In order to make this work, you've got to decide what you want, you've got to work out how to start, and what you need to do. But most importantly, you need to let go of anything you've ever known, and start doing what is best for you.

That could be anything from dropping your hours from full time to part time, and using that additional time to start up your own business, to taking up a new hobby you've always wanted to try but always been put off for some illogical reason like not being able to justify the costs. Make it justifiable, find away to manipulate your life around you. You need to be strong willed and have a lot of determination.

But you can do it. If a 19 year old with mental health problems AND special needs can do it, so can you.

Thank You! If you enjoyed my post please help me out by spreading the word, much appreciated :)

*All images licensed under creative commons and found on Pixabay.