30 Things I've Learned: #13

-Quit a job.

It sounds so simple. So easy. And yet for a lot of people I know it isn't.  Once upon a time, myself included.  

I stayed at my first "adult" job for 7 years. If my relationship hadn't fallen apart I easily could have stayed longer.  There were things I didn't like, but overall it was a dysfunctional family I rather liked being apart of. I'd been promoted up and worked in several different areas.  I met many lifelong friends. I loved the perks of the job (i.e.: the fashionable clothing and accessories I acquired en masse).  I remember wondering though, "could I stay forever?", "what would ever make me leave?", "should I stay?".  I couldn't ever quite decide if there was something better out there for me.  I also wasn't unhappy enough to leave.

And then I left.  I was terrified and worried about the choice I had made.  Now looking back 2 1/2 years later I feel so much lighter, so relieved.  It turns out it wasn't scary at all, it was freeing.  It will always be my favorite corporate job, one of my overall favorite jobs in fact.  While I have no desire to go back, it taught me so much.  The balance of my life was good - work and play and life and cool perks. The only way for me to really appreciate it though was to leave.  The only way for me to learn from it, was to leave.  I equate staying in a job to staying at a party too long - know when to go.  

Quitting isn't the same as giving up.

Quit a job. Try something different. Try something new.

Never forget to stop learning.