Episode #107 – Marc interviews quitting evangelist, Dr. Lynn Marie Morski on quitting strategies
Description
In this episode, Marc and Lynn discuss her book, Quitting by Design and discuss the advantages of quitting a job you don’t fit, some of the fears associated with quitting, how to prepare logically to meet the fears and move beyond them, and what you can learn from a job you hate and from leaving that job. Listen in for more ideas for your next career pivot or ‘quit.’
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[3:23] Marc welcomes Dr. Lynn Marie Morski to the Repurpose Your Career podcast.
[4:04] Lynn explains the differences between quitting and failing.
[4:41] Quitting strategically puts you in an empowered position. It is better than hoping for the best in a job where you are not performing until suddenly you get fired without any plans for what comes next.
[5:11] Unless you are independently wealthy, plan your next move. Marc has quit jobs. Once he was laid off, at his request. One of Marc’s favorite books is Necessary Endings, by Dr. Henry Cloud. In order for new things to start, we have to end things.
[6:04] Your body will tell you when it’s time to quit. When your body starts giving you signals, such as anxiety, insomnia, or a discontented feeling, you start to have chronic pain, or you start getting really irritable with your co-workers, loved ones, or friends, those are all signs that something is out of alignment and needs to be changed.
[6:49] Sometimes when people feel this way, they start adding things. It may be that you need to subtract something that isn’t working for you, not add something else.
[6:56] A therapist may point out to you the things that are not working for you. Sometimes another view can help us see what is not obvious to ourselves.
[8:11] Marc tells of times a therapist has helped him make a career change. It comes down to finding out what is creating the situation that is not working for you.
[8:32] There are fears around quitting. Lynn separates them into esoteric and logistical fears. If you wonder what about all the time and money you’ve wasted pursuing your career, overcome your fear by seeing the ‘sunk cost fallacy.’ Having put money into something is no reason to stay in it.
[9:37] If you were willing to spend time and money pursuing something you don’t want, the money you spent is gone, anyway. Don’t you owe it to yourself to find something you enjoy doing? Lynn talks about her medical school loans. She invested a lot in herself to follow a specific path.
[10:29] Lynn finished her Sports Medicine fellowship in 2009 and realized during that year that she didn’t love it. She decided what she did not want in her career. She chose to quit having a pager, quit prescribing, and quit working nights and weekends, sitting on the sidelines. She chose to do VA compensation and pension exams.
[13:24] Going through this process helped Lynn realize how to help other people who can’t make a dramatic ‘quit.’ To completely quit medicine is a lot bigger deal than to quit having specific aspects in a medical job.
[13:40] Marc notes that quitting is only bad if you haven’t learned something. He shares an experience from his IBM days. He quit from one position he hated in less than a year but he still uses what he learned from that year in his current practice. He’s glad he did it but enough of it was enough.
[14:50] People may fear that they have wasted whatever time they spent in a job they quit. The only way you can find out what you want to do is by experimenting. Not all those experiments are going to be slam-dunks. If you learn from it, it was not wasted.
[15:23] If Marc hated his IBM job and then took the same job at a competitor, yes, he would have wasted that time because he wouldn’t have learned from it. If you take an experience and learn what you do like, and what you don’t like, then it’s not a waste.
[15:40] Marc admits that multiple times in his career he has relapsed by going back to something he had done earlier, and not learning from the first time what he wanted to avoid. He says you have to learn from your mistakes, and not forget what you’ve learned!
[16:20] Besides the fears of sunk costs and wasted jobs, people may fear what other people may think. That is the least problem because nothing of what people think about you is nearly as important as what you think about yourself. What you experience is more real to you than what someone else may or may not be thinking.
[18:37] Marc recalls the episode with Jennifer Winter, who was head of sponsorship for Turner Broadcasting Sports. She did not like sports. People told her she had the greatest job ever, but it was not for her. Quitting is OK even if others don’t understand or support your decision.
[19:53] When somebody says something disapproving, it takes five seconds of your day. Contrast that with the 40 hours a week you have to put into the job. How does that balance out?
[20:45] If a person can’t quit and needs the money coming in. Strategically quitting is the answer. You want to up-level your life, not end up on the street. Lynn says to save up a nest egg or emergency fund, start a side hustle and work at it until it can take over as your main job, or start interviewing while you are still at the job you’re quitting.
[22:00] If you have to leave the job and you haven’t found a replacement job, find ways to live on half of your income and cut back on expenses so you can prepare for some time between jobs or finding a job with less earning potential than you had before.
[22:28] Marc recommends listeners to go back two episodes to listen to Susan Joyce of Job-Hunt.org. Susan talks about proactive vs. reactive job search. Marc reminds listeners he is moving to Mexico to be able to live on a third of the cost of living in Austin. This reduction in his cost of living allows Marc a huge amount of freedom.
[23:03] Marc also recommends you not to listen to what others tell you. Get the facts for yourself.
[23:14] You can find Lynn’s book or reach Lynn for coaching at QuittingByDesign.com. Also, you can contact Lynn on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at QuittingByDesign.
[23:44] Marc thanks Dr. Lynn Marie Morski for being on the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode — it might inspire you to be a quitter!