If you’re reading this, you’ve probably read countless articles and listened to all the podcast on quitting your 9-5 job. You may have even read a self-help book or twenty.

I know I have.

I spent years reading and listening to anything I could get my hands on that might help me quit my job.

The result? Well, I quit my job but not in the way you might expect.

When the time came to take this leap of faith, I wasn’t doing it for a new job or business idea. Instead, my health forced me to quit my job.

By the time I put in my resignation, I was sick, in pain, and miserable.

The following year gave me a lot of time to think, grow, learn, and heal.

When I looked back on everything I’ve learned over the past year, five things have stuck with me since I quit my job.

1. You’re the only one that’s going to put yourself first. No one else can do it for you.

Before I left corporate someone told me they wanted the old me back. A sick, unhappy, burn out, but productive me. A me that I never wanted to see again.

I felt like my only value was in my output. The sacrifice for that output was my health.

Even with multiple people encouraging me to focus on my health, I felt the pressure to keep pushing because that’s what was expected of me.

After a stress fracture that left me unable to walk well for months and multiple illnesses that ended up being auto-immune related, I realized it was time to step back from what my job wanted me to do and take care of myself.

No matter how many conversations I had about how I was doing, no one could step in and force me to put myself first.

2. Taking a jump into the unknown is hard and not everyone has the privilege to do it.

I am the first to admit that not everyone can up and leave their job without a solid plan.

My first tip to anyone who wants to start a writing career whether as an author or freelance writer is to keep your day job for as long as you can.

Remember, stability enables creativity to shine.

It’s hard to create or build anything with added financial stress.

I’m lucky to be able to fall back on other freelance work and have a great support system because everyone doesn’t the that opportunity.

Major life changes are scary. Make the decision that the best for you.

3. There are a lot of ways to make money that don’t look like the type of career we were raised to strive for.

I was raised by a stay-at-home mom and an accountant father who wanted me to find a well-paying job I could advance in.

I graduated with an accounting degree and started my first corporate job dreaming of the corner office.

A dream that I realized wasn’t for me in the first year of working.

It didn’t take long for me to learn that climbing the corporate ladder wasn’t the only option.

I could create something I was proud of and enjoyed doing without the office politics and stress of corporate finance deadlines. And without being completely broke.

While this won’t happen overnight, knowing that a non-traditional career is an option opens doors that I didn’t know existed.

4. What works for others might not work for you. 

After years of absorbing how successful entrepreneurs founded six and seven figure businesses, I tried to take their methods and put them into practice.

The problem?

The tips and tricks didn’t work for me.

I took in too much information and forgot myself in the process.

It didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t looking for what they had.

I had no desire to have the stress of building a seven-figure business or becoming an influencer.

I wanted a way to make money that supported my physical and mental health. My body had already fallen apart once.

The hustle and grind advice I was seeing everywhere didn’t work for me, and that’s okay.

5. Everyone moves at their own pace.

After running eight half-marathons, I can say with confidence every race is different and everyone running the same race is moving at a different pace.

Same goes for a writing career or starting a small business.

It’s easy to feel like you should give up if you’re not seeing results as fast as someone else.

But what about what else you don’t see? You don’t know the time, energy, and disappointments successful writers or business owners have experienced.

Putting your creative work out into the world is hard enough without comparing yourself to others.

Comparison has been the thief of many creative dreams.

Just because they are running the same race at a different pace doesn’t mean you’re not going to reach the finish line.

For 2024, it’s time to put down the self-help books and take off your headphones. This is the year we step back and focus on our journey.