Jesse Ojuka

Last week I quit my job.

It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I don’t feel any trepidation regarding what may be ahead. The decision to leave was one made in faith. The emotion I decided to guide my life decisions. It was also made with obvious rationality. If our time is limited, and the way I’ve been spending it has been making me miserable.

Something must change.

An interesting observation I made today was that after so long of being imprisoned by the shackles of work. Freedom can be overwhelming. Like being lost at Sea, not knowing which way to paddle. Despite being someone with a very clear vision. I can see why after a while, people fear freedom.

I feel immense gratitude that I don’t feel like leaving my job is a bold move. My values guide me through life, decisiveness is swift when I strongly feel this is misaligned.

“If you do easy things you’ll have a hard life, if you do hard things, you’ll have an easy life”

Time has always been more valuable to me than money. As she passes, the feeling only becomes stronger. I try to think about mortality often. It is one of the few universal truths. We all die. This life as we know it will certainly come to an end. Before that happens, all we have is time. Why would you waste it? Why would you waste it on things that squeeze out your life force?

In recent conversations with colleagues at work, friends in the studio to even my mother. There’s a unanimous consensus. The system is fucked. Everyone knows it. We spend our lives working to just about survive to continue to work. Most of us are in jobs we hate. The system has been so ingrained in us, that we fall to it even though we are fully aware of its fatal poison. But not only that, we chastise, judge and scowl at someone who decides to break free. Do you know how dangerously powerful and manipulative a system must be to be defended by the people it imprisons?

“Nothing interesting begins with knowing, it begins with not knowing”

This experience makes me think back to one of my favourite books, ‘The Pathless Path’ by Paul Miller. He says:

“The pathless path is an alternative to the default path, it is an embrace of uncertainty and discomfort. It’s a call to adventure in a world that tells us to conform”.

When I told people I was leaving, the typical reply would be “Do you have something else lined up”, to confusion in their eyes when I would reply “No”. It showed me that most people are following a script they didn’t write. Due to the level of presence in my life, I don’t stray too far from the ultimate truth. Mortality. That is how I make my decisions. Not based on what other people may think. Not based on what my wonderful mother may think or my lovely cousins and friends. But what future I may think as I get closer to my inevitable end?

Jobs are essential to survive, but be careful not to stay in one that erodes your soul just because they also serve as a quick answer when asked what you’re doing with your life. Make sure you aren’t using your job as a disguise.

The Point of all of this

I’m going to leave you with this. If you love your job then I’m delighted for you. However, if you feel like you’ve numbed yourself to life. Like you live for the brief moments, not in work. Like time is racing past you… You have become a human robot. I strongly urge you to be bold. Save enough money for a couple of months of bills, and leave. Save yourself before it’s too late. Use the time to reevaluate your life. Use the time to discover and outline your values. Design a life that you don’t want to escape.

“Your life is too valuable to short and valuable to fritter away in work” – William Reilly.