I came across this terminology while conducting an online research sometime ago, and ever since it has resonated with me.
Quiet Quitting – what is quiet quitting? Before I actually give you a definition for it, let’s look at the following scenarios. Let’s see if you can identify areas of your life that you too many have been quiet quitting.
Too often we get bogged down on a definition and miss the actual point. Let’s start changing our tactics in an effort to improve our personal development. Let’s look at the following 2 scenarios.
Scenario 1
Throughout your developmental years, you’ve dreamed about changing the world – in your own way. Life happened and things never manifested the way you intended, but in everything we do, we make choices, some unknowingly, of course, but we do.
Soon after, you come to realise that you can’t change the world by yourself (in reality, none of us can by ourselves – we need each other – we are all a part of the grander scheme of things).
You manage to become a company employee, worked your way up to a managerial position, and became comfortable – comfortable with work, comfortable with life, comfortable with everything. Time passes and you forget your desires, your dreams, and your aspirations. You seemingly forget all that you wanted to do, to ‘change the world’ and the ways in which you would.
Scenario 2
You’ve been employed by your organisation for years. There’s no upward mobility, now or in the future to come. What do you do?
You’ve been on the 9-5 grind for a very long time, it could be an entry-level or a managerial position. Over the years, you’ve become unhappy, but you have also become comfortable. Most days you feel like quitting, but you never have the guts to step out in faith, or even allow yourself the time to reassess and find your purpose. In all honesty, it’s easier said than done for most of us, but that too is an option. Remember every indecision is an indirect decision.
So many days you’ve felt like quitting. What did you do?
Let’s look at the opportunities that are present before you.
With every scroll across the internet, you see opportunities but often your mental eyes don’t allow you to see them immediately, so you keep scrolling on by.
Instead of pursuing other opportunities, whether educational or for personal growth, you spend the time idly and complain about your seemingly missed opportunities. Your superiors ask you to do a task that’s not outlined in your job description and immediately you put your walls up. “Why is he asking me to do that…it’s not my job!” You learnt nothing new and didn’t expand your mind; instead, you remained stuck in the same mental capacity you began your day with….
Quiet quitting says we won’t go beyond the outlined duty of our job. If it’s to balance the books, that’s it. Nothing else. We are locked into our signed contracts. Never growing, never improving.
There are many aspects to quiet quitting, as we also often quit on ourselves and our dreams. Life shouldn’t all be about work, but having a healthy work–life balance is paramount for living a healthy life.
What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about money? Would you take a vacation and travel the world? Would you retire early? When you think about your desires, do you think you can start off small? How about treating yourself to a weekend getaway or even a day’s activity where you can rest, relax and rejuvenate.
The key thing is finding boundaries in every aspect of your life in the process.
Even as entrepreneurs we fall back into our ways of doing things, forgetting the ‘why’ we started. We are prone to take our workaholic behaviour everywhere we go.
Quiet quitting steals your joy.
You know the saying “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” This still rings true today. Let’s redirect our focus and end quiet quitting in our lives.
How will you start showing up for yourself?
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