Am I Failure For Giving Up My Leadership Role?

Am I Failure For Giving Up My Leadership Role? This is something that at least three people have said to me in the last week and having been through these exact same thoughts myself I thought it deserved some time on the blog this week. 

Let me begin by saying that actually giving up a job that was stressful, making you poorly and feeling as though you couldn't cope was a decision showing your strength. 

Being a leader or a manager might have meant a bigger salary and more responsibility and feeling as though you're doing the social norms of climbing the career ladder. But actually who is all of that for? What good is the higher salary if you never have the time to invest in making new memories? If you're spending each moment of the day chasing your tail and missing out on valuable time with those that you love. Or that your health suffers so badly that it makes you ill or has long term consequences for living well. 

The real secret to more joy and happiness in life is having freedom; with your time, with the day you lead and who you spend it with. When you have this it's the true gold dust in life. It might look like earning less but it's about living better. By doing a different role where you have the freedom to take a small group of children to the beach to look in the rock pools, or doing an outdoor yoga story with your 3 and 4 year olds on the grass in the summer or supporting a child one to one who really needed your help. While doing this you're having an incredible impact on others too but it's not draining you and taking all the best bits that other jobs might have done. 

Discover what lights you up and fill your days with more of this. Then don't feel guilty for giving up the parts of your day that drain you. Life is short and precious and you're not going to look back in 20/ 30 years time and think...I wish that I had stayed in the job that made me miserable. Instead you'll look back and be proud of the strength you showed at a difficult time as it transformed your life. 

Earn less but live more.