What It Actually Looks Like to Quit Your Unfulfilling Job to Pursue Your Calling (From Someone Who’s Done It 3x)
The reason quitting your job to pursue your calling seems so terrifying is because the Ego fears uncertainty.
It’s a safety mechanism built into humans to keep us safe. If we know the path, it’s laid out for us, predicable…then it’s safe, and danger-free…is what the Ego believes.
This is precisely why we spend our entire life trying to predict every single small scenario, manipulate outcomes, and plan for every “worst case scenario” we can think of.
And nothing, I mean NOTHING get the ‘ol fear factory in our Ego going more than the thought of severing a safe and steady income stream for an unpredictable one, which is often required when we decide to pivot toward our true calling.
This fear is exactly what keeps people welded firmly to a job they hate, going through the motions day in and day out, staring out the window of their lives while other people live their calling.
But the simple truth is that the only thing constant is change. Even a “safe” job can dump you at any minute. Change happens both with our involvement and without it, so what we really want to do is thank the Ego for it’s duty in giving us information we need to make critical decisions, but not make it the sole driver of our destiny. Instead, use it as an informant to follow our heart, but mitigate risk.
So, I’m gonna paint an unbelievably real picture of what it looks like to take the leap, because it’s one I’ve taken 3 times now. Each one brought with it it’s own challenges, triumphs and lessons that my goal is to share with you so you can learn from my journey and make you the pivot to your calling as smooth as possible.
The First Time:
I was in my early 20s the first time I ever abruptly quit my job without a real backup plan.
I had a job I had a lot of fun at, but grew bored with. I was poached by a large-scale agency that offered a shiny salary, room for growth, etc. so, as an ambitious 20 something, I jumped at the opportunity….only to find that for whatever reason, thinking about going to work filled me with absolute dread.
Any time I thought about work, I had a visceral reaction in my gut. Painfully uncomfortable, and it was so unpleasant I knew that I couldn’t suppress it much longer. It would eventually make me physically ill, which is exactly what happens when we stay in situations that give us that feeling – after a while, it manifests physically as an illness or ailment.
I decided one day driving in to work that I would quit. I had had it with that gut wrenching feeling of dread I felt on every drive in, and at my former job we had worked with freelancers on Upwork.
“I could do that!” thought.
So I went in to work, sent my boss an email, closed my laptop and left it there, and started my freelancing business that afternoon, which I ran successfully for 2 years before hopping on board with a lovely startup agency that was one of my former clients.
It had worked out like a charm, all my bills were paid without skipping a beat, I had a steady stream of clients…bada boom, bada bing.
The Second Time:
2 or so years after I folded up shop and decided to goon board with that agency, I had steadily climbed the chain of command to a pretty cushy spot in my career. I got a new job at another wonderful agency, but I still had that nagging feeling that I was squandering my gifts of being a messenger on marketing products to people they really didn’t need, instead of making a bigger impact and feeling truly fulfiled.
During the time I was at the agency, I started a womens ecommerce conference with 3 other women and we had an amazing run putting on 3 large scale conferences. I did a motivational talk at each one, and at the second conference, I felt so confident in becoming a spiritual coach for women who would be this motivational speaker, best selling author and coach that I, again, quit my well-paying salary job at the agency to become that.
It worked out for me before, it had to again, right?
Wrong.
I was so yipped on “having faith in the unknown” and “trusting in the Universe” that I assumed it would take me no time to figure out what I would offer, how I would help women, market to them, and gain a bunch of high-paying clients. I totally fell for the whole “make $50K a month with high-ticket clients” shtick thats been going around, and all the conflicting advice from different “gurus” just sent me on a wild chase.
Meanwhile, I was the bread winner in my previous job, so my husband took on being our sole income provider and we struggled. Hard.
I felt this overwhelming pressure to hurry up and make money that before I knew it, I had spent a year going back and forth on the “how, what, why, and who” of my business that I got NOWHERE and I helped absoluetly NO ONE.
I had lost the plot completely, and in a desperate effort to gain income again for my family, decided to take a low-pressure copywriting job at a social media advertising agency to help pay the bills we were getting buried under.
I stayed at this job for 2 years and had NO plans to leave or make any changes just yet. We were comfortable and stable which is something we both craved.
Then, of course, the Universe had other plans.
The Last Time:
The first time I quit to become a freelancer was 2018.
The second time was 2022.
And the third time was a few months ago – June, 2026.
Things were getting a little weird at the advertising agency.
It was a small, budding agency when I first came on board, so I expected all the textbook growing pains that tend to ensue when 20 something leaders all of the sudden find themselves at the center of a growing agency.
I didn’t sweat it too much, but maybe I should’ve.
Because about 2 months after things were getting a little organiztionally chaotic, they got everyone in my department on a video call and fired us.
It was the first time in my entire life that a career made had been made on my behalf with 0 involvement from me, whatsoever.
I had always known I was going to have my business someday, but I was totally not ready. I was going to be smart about it this time, and ease into it when I was ready, using my copywriting job as a vehicle to help get me there.
But the Universe laughed in my face, got my ass off the couch, and gave me a second chance.
This time, I wasn’t going to squander it.
Sure I went through the rigamarole of panic-applying to jobs I didn’t want.
Even with a decorated career like mine, I wasn’t even getting calls back from “safety” jobs I didn’t really want, but knew I’d get.
Jokes on me! Everything has changed.
Some people have been job hunting for literal years in my field.
Given that this is the nature of the environment, I figured I might as well take this time to also start building my business.
So that’s what I’m doing!
I’ve had a few sales so far, but nothing huge quite yet.
But this time I know what to do differently, what to focus on, what to lock in immediately, and what can wait.
Next week, I’ll be sharing what’s working for me so far.
Oh, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I applied to a part-time job doing online marketing for a woman who owns a holistic healing center near me, and we have a call today.
I may end up doing work for her part-time, while I intentionally grow the other income streams I’ve opened up and am working on.
Which leads me to the main point of all of this:
Don’t sever an income stream unless you have a clear, provable plan.
You don’t have to get to the point where you’re choosing between one or the other, but you do have to have a Fully Baked Pivot Plan that will help you generate an income.
The Lessons from Quitting 3X
The first time I quit, I knew exactly what I was going to do and only needed to focus on pitching clients on Upwork. I had a clear strategy, only focused on one platform, and all I had to do was perfect my pitch which was easy because I was literally a copywriter. I just sent a ton of pitches on Upwork every day, and it was only a matter of time before I got my first paying job.
The second time, I had no plan. I was relying on “it worked out before, I just gotta have faith” but the Universe doesn’t quite work like that. You have to co-create with her. You can’t just make a sudden hasty decision, which completely alters the trajectory of your timeline, btw, and expect the Universe to keep up. Manifestation happens when we create space for what we desire on a soul level, open ourse;ves up to it, take inspired action every day knowing it’s making something happen for us before we can see it, trusting in divine timing, and not giving up just because we are starting to feel discouraged.
Fortunately, leap #2 gave me a ton of learnings that I can now take into this one. Those are:
Not getting distracted by what’s important
Focusing on serving others like I did the first time - going where they are and talling them how you can help. Don’t waste time on an over engineered strategy, aesthetic, or perfectionism (!!!!) just put something together you know will help people, then go find the people who need it.
Start with small steps while you have a stable job - making a plan, saving $, ironing out the details, making a timeline, or even maybe looking for a part time job to build your business. It doesn’t have to be a dramatic exit. When the time comes that it’s time to go, you’ll know.
I could spend a lot more time on the Do’s and Don’ts of quitting your job to pursue your calling, but it will really depend on your unique situation.
If made the decision that eventually you’re going to quit to lean fully into your calling, then start small by fleshing out what that will look like.
I’ll leave you with this:
It can be done. You can do it. There is a timeline that already exists where you are living your calling, and making a living doing it. Your job is to first map out point A to point B as best as you can, and be ready to make the moves required to get you there.
If you’re not sure where to start or what Point B even looks like for you, I wrote an ebook to help. Click below.
Ready to discover your calling? ↴
I put literally all my learnings in the ebook below to help save you a good 2-3 years and financial ruin (which I’ll tell you all about in the next entry.)
