I’ve always been a hardworking person. For as long as I can remember, my young adult life has been packed with work experiences since I not only love money, but also enjoy providing for myself and my loved ones. Besides that, I have always liked the idea of jobs. Weird, I know. I’ve never completely understood it myself, but I do think there’s something special about providing a service to people, whether it be job-wise or in life. I enjoy going the extra mile to help, offer support, and make someone’s day remarkable or better than before. Nevertheless, while I love the idea of working and giving people something to smile about, I left my last job so I could grow.Â
I’ve always been the type of person who self-sacrifices a lot of their emotions and time for others. It is easy to do so, from my giving perspective. As someone whose part-time job required me to do so most of the time, I genuinely did not find it exhausting. However, I found out that there are people who will take advantage of my nature because they believe I am too naïve to do anything about it.
Because of this, my job would often confuse me in matters that made me feel personally conflicted. I would try to be the very best at what I was assigned to do, approaching my duties with dedication and a strong desire to show how much I care. While it sometimes felt like my hard work and that of others went unrecognized, I chose to focus on the positive impacts of the job and I put my all into it because that’s who I am. Â
Similarly, people who dedicate a lot of their time into helping others and invest themselves fully in what they do, are normally seen as naive, idealistic, and misguided individuals. That’s what I was seen as, I think, when it came to the job. Nevertheless, now I see it as the opposite. I have only found strength in caring about my job rather than seeing it as a weakness. I could practically see it in customers’ faces when I would go the extra mile to make their day a better one. It was truly challenging at times (since all customers were different), but I didn’t mind. And overall, I really liked the descriptors of my job. Sometimes, the customers would even repay my behavior by being as lovely as I had hoped they would be.
You might be asking yourself, “Why did she quit her job then?” It’s not as complex as it sounds, but it’s not as easy either. There were a lot of things in my professional life that I didn’t think were being achieved. I have always genuinely wanted to help people by being a psychologist, as it’s a subject I’m strongly passionate about. And while I loved my past job, there was something missing. There are moments in your life where, even if you do not want to let something go, you have to so something better can come along. To sacrifice for one thing is to allow yourself to change in another. And in my case, the universe practically dropped it in my lap, an opportunity to help others. Don’t get me wrong, the job that I once had taught me so much, and made me grow in ways that I still do not understand to this day. However, I am grateful for the new opportunity I’ve recently received to lend a helping hand in my community and to advance, not only in my professional career, but also in my personal goals.Â
Sometimes, you have to sacrifice the things you like to do the things you love and want for yourself. In this case, my job was something I really liked and was perfectly aligned for what I needed at the moment. But, as much as I changed with the perspective of my job, so did my motivations. And there is nothing wrong with that.Â
Since I decided to leave my job, it has not been easy at all, but I’m eternally grateful for all the opportunities I have to engage in now. Growth is challenging, but it’s necessary. It’s essential that we all understand that our personal development is the most important job we can have.Â