“So, what do you do?”

“Actually, I recently resigned and I’m catching up with everything I’ve missed out on doing.”

Most of my conversations with new people have been going like this for the past 2 weeks. I gave my job up for several reasons, the details of which I don’t need to elucidate. If I had to put it simply, there are things I need time for and I’d begun to find that my work didn’t bring me the kind of joy it initially did.

The job market is terrible across the planet. Everyone’s fretting about jobs, everyone’s trying to make the most of the education they’ve invested in, and everyone’s trying to make a decent, meaningful living. In the pursuit of a living, many keep aside what they truly deserve and settle for what they get because the concept of ‘something is better than nothing’ has been drilled into our minds. The argument of taking a mediocre job or anything that makes its way to you is pretty standard because, somehow, it’s going to lead you to the job you want and deserve. Eventually, it will happen. Ultimately, your time will come.

I would have believed every bit of everything above a year ago. I really would. A year later, having shed a lot of stress weight and my fairly healthy, long Indian hair, along with the burden of far too much emotional stress and a loss of meaningful relationships, I couldn’t have been happier to let go. My job was most certainly not the primary reason for all of those things but it did play a massive role— a fact that I have very begrudgingly come to admit.

Stepping back is really difficult to do. It involves a lot of honesty, often to the point where it might become uncomfortable and it calls for a stand to be taken. It makes you re-evaluate your choices, it makes you look back on whether everything you’ve done and put work into is really worth it. For me, it wasn’t about whether something was worth it or not. It was about managing my life, creating a balance and really pinpointing the difference between what I needed and what I wanted. That distinction can get blurry so fast, especially when money is involved. But that distinction is crucial— needs and wants are never the same. We befuddle ourselves with the belief that they are, but often, what we need and want fall on the extreme ends of the same spectrum.

In choosing to break away from my job, I haven't just gotten completely free from everything. I prioritized my health, my state of mind and my future— all extremely difficult decisions to make. I put my big dreams on the table instead of the next paycheck. I put things into perspective to realize that I wasn’t getting what I wanted out of my work, nor was it giving me the kind of nourishment and joy that work must absolutely bring to any person’s life. I was just moving through the monotony of things, preventing some other more passionate, more deserving person from taking up my position to do it way better than I could.

Despite our several limitations, there is incredible value in stepping back. It speaks not just to your character but it tells you what you prioritize, what matters to you. People will be quick to refute those things with rational, logical explanations of why you can’t just step back when you choose to. Ultimately, it is for you to know that maybe letting go of something you think you need right now is probably paving the way for what you truly want. We all want to live full, happy lives. Sometimes, cutting the cord and taking one small step back is what prompts the next five steps you’ll take in the direction you truly want to go in.