Daring To Take A New Job

Time flies. I’ve been less active online lately because my brain has been very preoccupied offline. A break from social media is usually a good thing, but I don’t like to skip out of blogging. I haven’t even played video games in over a week. My focus has been on work at my day job.

I have a new schedule that sees me rising earlier than I used to. I’m spending longer hours at work. And the work itself has been extra heavy, some of it emotional.

I’m switching companies.

An opportunity opened up, one thing led to another, and last week I submitted my resignation at Job A. With one week down, I’ve got one more week before I start fresh at Job B.

You can imagine that such a big change takes a lot of consideration and decision making. I knew it would — it felt like disruption again — so I quickly asked some friends to pray for my situation. I’ll take any help I can get from wise counsel and high power.

The tricky thing is I had two job choices: a proven good job or a potentially better job. It’s one thing to discern right from wrong, but it can be baffling to choose between good, better, or best.

Do I stay where I am, comfortable, safe, and relatively secure? Is my good job good enough? Or do I take some risk for what looks and sounds like a better job? Do I want to “start over” with a new company, proving myself again? There’s switching costs.

So I had that weighing on me for a while. And I was juggling ongoing work with behind-the-scenes new job research and changing my daily work schedule. My brain had little left for gaming or blogging or social media.

To make things tougher, saying “good-bye” to long working relationships and colleagues over the past week has brought feelings of sadness and grief. I’ve been surprised by how challenging it’s been.

The thing is, no matter what choice I make, I’ll upset people. Either folks from Job A will be sad to see me go. Or folks from Job B will be disappointed to see me not join.

As they say, I must do what’s best for my family and for me.

I think the new Job B offers more than just better income. It offers a better work environment, a better setup, which means I’ll be happier day-to-day in my job. Overall, I think stress will be lower, at least where it matters most.

So I’m going for it, taking some risk. It can make me feel anxious at times. And that anxiety can make me question whether I’m doing the right thing or the best thing. If I stew on that too long, I start to get cold feet.

But it also feels adventurous or daring, which brings some sense of exhilaration. It’s like sky-diving I think: yeah, it’s crazy and scary I bet, but when you go for it, what a thrill! And when you land, alive and intact, your sense of accomplishment must be overwhelming and jubilous.

Wish me luck. Say a prayer. Thanks for following along.