Are You Working It Out or Wasting Your Time?



It’s a slippery slope.

When does leaving mean quitting and when does it become a decision to make better use of your time?

Millennials have it the worse of all generations. They are often tagged as a generation of quitters hopping from one job to another.

Then there are the easy ones, the girl or guy who hops from one relationship to another .

There are the social butterflies. They move around circles without “belonging” to anything or anyone in particular.

The question is where is the line? When is quitting become simply a demonstration of cowardice and when does it become a step towards a wiser use of time. After all, this one chance is all we've got. Why get stuck in something you don't want to do?

Sure, some people simply don’t know what they want but maybe moving around is a part of the process for them to learn what they really want. There’s always the other side to that, of course. Moving around may tolerate the transience of one’s life.

 I’ve tried both routes.


College


 I knew early on that I wanted to work in the media industry. I didn’t had the specificity down. So, I explored. I have always liked writing, creative writing that is. However, the elitism of UST Journalism program swayed me.

 I knew it wasn’t it for me on my third year but I stuck with it because it was “too late” to shift and, somehow, leaving something unfinished leaves a bad taste in the mouth in my family.

 Now, I wonder what would have happened had I majored in Literature.


Career

There’s the job I had for almost a decade. I learned a lot in advertising and I would be lying if I say I am not reaping the benefits of having a decade-long tenure in one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world but I felt I had enough on my fifth year.

 I stuck it out because prior to getting that job, I had a series of short tenures in several industries in an effort to find “the one” for me.

The company was, by all accounts, a good one. It wasn’t perfect but good. It had paths to growth, good pay and a good corporate culture.

I had no reason to leave except one, I ran the full course. I should have quit sooner. I should have pursued what I always knew I was meant to be doing.


Relationship

My first relationship went on for almost seven years. What is odd is that I knew it had to end on our second year but stuck with it because I am not the kind to quit. I am pretty much the type to ride it ‘till the wheels come off. I like seeing things through end, leave no "what ifs" hanging around.

I am wrong. There is always that 'what if'. In this case, it is the 'what if I ended it when I knew I had to, what would be of me?'

When I weigh everything out, the scale tips heavily towards the side of “wasted time”. I was young and missed out on certain adventures because I had “another half” to think about. I was the one who primarily “drove” the relationship. Instead of just focusing on me, I had to think about him and this “world” we were sharing.  Sure, I learned some things because of that relationship but I can’t help but think that I may have grown up faster and better if I hadn’t been carrying a load on my shoulder. Of, course now I know I should be carrying that load in the first place but that’s another post.


And Then There’s More

Millions move to LA in the hopes of conquering Hollywood. Most spend their entire life hoping… never realizing.

In a much larger scale, people move to the US in the hopes of conquering a bigger world, a world that matters. There are those who quit being a friend to someone to find better company or to simply pull away from one that sucks.

There are couples who choose to divorce or not divorce and there is never a certainty which one would have been the right one.

It would have been way easier if there’s a rulebook, an exact measure, a fixed guide on when it is the right time to quit and when it is to continue. There isn’t any so we are left to our own resources and often unanswered or incorrectly answered question.

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