Oh my GOD.....

[El Orans]

Don't forget to tell Natasha...

 

[Diver0001]

Hey Diver0001- if you were a woman we could run away together

Well......I mean..... I'm pretty cute, how about you? LOL

My wife tried to chase me away to Egypt this week. I want to go diving in Egypt this year anyway and she told me to drop everything and go now..... Which was really cruel because I have my head 10 metres deep in a project startup and if I left now about 100 people would try to kill me ..... sigh.

R..

 

[ScubaFreak]

i wish my gf would tell me to go...when i mentioned about going to Bonaire with a load of strangers from a website, the look she gave me nearly buried me

 

[Hank49]

After 22 grueling years of growing shrimp, I took all of 1999 of and lived on Boracay, Phlippines for the year. It was one of the best years of my life...diving every day, working in a dive shop. However, three kids needed to finish college and a dive instructors pay wouldn't cover the cost. So I'm back to shrimp. Was it worth it though. Very much so.

 

[simbrooks]

It seems daily to me, i can fly on autopilot at this engineering job at the moment, nothing to tax me or challenge me - not much motivation except that they are paying my immigration fees for visas etc and a decent wage on top of that. I am however trying hard to make it interesting and push myself when i can, just wish i didnt have to try so hard! However my life outside of work is fun, full of diving and other adventures - so not bored with life, just work

As for quitting for a less stressful job, remember they are low paying, usually also quite boring and the grass is greener syndrome wears off fast. Why did you go into the field you are currently in/trying to escape? Do you really think the other options will provide the kind of life you want, more so than what you do now?

 

[ScubaFreak]

Well i'm in IT right now- 7 years im in it- straight from school. But i've recently qualified as a muscle therapist- which is a good filed, but needs other qualifications to back it up. But there's such a choice!!

aagh!

 

[CBulla]

I actually did something similar to that. I was so burnt out after a few 24cr hour loads in college (prez of student council & comp club) and running my own biz that I took off and went camping for 2 months in some of Floridas state parks.

After a few years, for some inexplicable reason I found myself in the same position working for a company which shall remain nameless for now and after 4 1/2 years there I couldn't take the "games" any more and fortunately they asked me for a divorce from our working relationship. That was late August.

I've never been happier.. very cash poor at the moment, but mentally and family wise, it has made a tremendous difference in making decisions for myself and not following some idiotic company around at their beck and whim.

 

[Damselfish]

I just did it, quit to take some time off. (Yep, computer industry.) Not sure how long and I'll go back to it, but this was something I had to do right now.

Everyone is jealous and cheering me for doing it, and some people that had done it in the past themselves say it's the best thing they ever did.

 

[Diver0001]

....snip....

Why did you go into the field you are currently in/trying to escape? Do you really think the other options will provide the kind of life you want, more so than what you do now?

These are good, provocative, questions, Simon.

I think for many people there is a disconnect between aptitude and ambition that they don't discover until it's too late.

I also think people's dreams are often more about ambition (ScubaFreak wants to be a musician) but the reality is more related to aptitude (he works behind a computer)....And that kind of rub starts to hurt after a while.

Same thing happened to me. I never set out to get the kind of job I have. I just rolled into what I do now by a series of coincidences and it turned out that I was exceedingly good at it (aptitude). What I would rather do, though (ambition) is work in a job that required me to be outside a lot. Preferably all the time. It wouldn't even matter much to me what it was. When I was young I had a job as the caretaker of a cemetery and it was the best job I ever had. I grew up close to nature and office buildings just suck the life-energy right out of me. I thought I would get used to it but I never have. My father says that my problem is that (in his words) "you can take the boy out of the mountain but you can't take the mountain out of the boy".

I'm afraid he's right. I think this is why I keep getting burned out every 5 years or so and have the irrepressible need to go walk-about.

R..

 

[RICHinNC]

This is interesting as I was just listening to Public Radio as I drove into work this morning and one program featured people who had done just that....tossed it all in and did what the heart desired. The key factor to their happiness was $$$$$ every single one of them had lots of $$$$$ in the bank so it didnt matter. A lady called in and said she did the same thing early in life......now she is doing what she likes...but has no $$$$, no health insurance, a car that breaks every two minutes, no savings........and so on. Her point was simple....be sure to tell everyone the consequences of "chuckin it all in" and not just paint a rosy side.

I am just tooooooo conservative and self protecting to just chuck it all in.......at least until I win the power ball lottery....then look out !!