Take this job and…
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to just walk into work one day and announce, “I quit!”? Haven’t we all? Well Claude and I actually did it and the results were bittersweet.
When things are stressful at work, it’s easy to imagine pitching it all to live a life of leisure. Reality is a very different thing. For most of us, a good portion of our identity is tied up in our careers. One of the first ice-breaker questions people ask is, “What do you do?” It’s difficult to imagine life without work. Part of the reason I decided to do this trip was because I felt like I was beginning to lose myself to my work. As a business owner, it is very easy to become owned by your business. I found myself shortchanging my family’s and my own needs in order to meet the needs of the business. The balance was tipping and I needed to restore order in my personal life. I decided that it was time to pour my energy into spending time with my husband and kids. For anyone who knows me, without a business to focus on, I will treat this trip like it’s my job and, hopefully, be as successful a vagabonder as I have a career-woman. My kids will get tons of my attention (whether they want it or not) and my husband will get a full partner again (I hope he’s ready). I am hopeful that, after a year, all of us will be ready for a break from each other and be eager to jump back into jobs and school with a renewed sense of focus.
It was very tempting to try to make the break a little less permanent by hedging our bets. We discussed taking a leave of absence or a sabbatical, but, in the end, the whole point of taking this trip was to be free of all commitments and obligations so we could truly re-evaluate our priorities and chart our course for the future. The only way to do this was to make a clean break – as painful as it was. Now that we’ve reached the point of no return (house sold, jobs quit), reality has set in. Our coworkers are like family and it hurts to leave them as much as our frends.
Last week, Claude worked his last day for at least the next fourteen months. That night I watched jealously as he celebrated his new-found freedom and was toasted by his coworkers. I kept asking him how it felt to be completely free – unfortunatey, he was too busy being the life of the party to answer me. It was special to see how much his colleagues value and appreciate him and how much he will be missed. There were tears as they read me his farewell email to them and chuckles over his invitation to our “go away” party.
As for myself, I have had mixed emotions about walking away from my successful business. Since I made my decision, many exciting things have happened and business is booming. When I first made my decision, I had a difficult time remaining focused at work and began to “check out”. When we finally went public with our decision, word spread like wildfire and it became the number one topic of conversation at work. Friends and business acquaintances started popping in daily and it was a battle to get any work done. Then I found out that a long awaited renovation was finally going ahead (in May!). So now, instead of simply guiding the ship until the new skipper takes over, I was looking at navigating through a Category 5 hurricane. Right now, my store is in complete chaos as we are attempting to expand and completely reconfigure the layout while remaining open for business through it all. My staff and customers have been amazing, thus far, and I have been forced to “check back in” in a big hurry. This would be stressful for anyone, but without the incentive of being able to see the final result, it’s difficult to remain positive and focused through it all. My staff keep teasing me that they’ll email the “after” pictures to me in Fiji.
Meanwhile, trip-planning is in high gear and the days are counting down fast. When I’m at work, I’m completely focused on work, but when I come home, I’m up all hours of the night, planning. Hence the reason there hasn’t been a new post in over a month. The other day I realized just how insane it is that I’m working until two days before we leave on our trip! At this rate, I’ll need to take a vacation before we leave!
The one thing we do know is that this is not a mistake. No matter how much we second-guess ourselves, we’ve both come to the conclusion that we’ve made the right choice. Careers come and go, but our kids will only be young once. We may never have another opportunity to do anything like this ever again. We both know that we’ll land on our feet and it is incredibly liberating to be completely free, even for a year. When we return, we’ll be able to see where the opportunities are before deciding where to live and work. Hopefully, after a year away, we’ll have a fresh new perspective and clarity of vision.
Now, we just have to survive until August 14th!
Tags: Planning, Travel, work
tambour
I am reading your blog with great anticipation as I am bursting at the seems to do the same with my wife and 5 year old daughter.
-Paul
Hi there,
I really enjoyed reading your entry. I related a lot to what you said having just quit my job myself. A lot of our identity is tied up in our work, but “world traveler” or “vagabond extrordinaire” is a much more exciting answer to the question of what do you do, don’t you think? I am still going to work for a year before my fiance and I take off on our round the world excursion, so its nice to read your blog and have someone to live vicariously through until that time =) Take care and happy planning!
-Jessi
Thanks for the encouraging words. It’s nice to know that we can inspire others through our trip.
I do like the title “vagabond extraordinaire,” maybe I’ll get some business cards made up.
siiigns siigns everywhere a sign…blocking tam’s scenery breaking her mind.
get a job, hippie.
😛 Can’t wait to see you guys in September.
Well you guys I just wanted to say have a great time…I’m sure you will. Your sense of adventure is admirable. This is an incredible experience for the 2 of you but what an education for your children. We wish you the best…good luck and have fun!!!