If you don't like your job, quit!

I once read somewhere, 'If you don't like your job, quit!' It sounds simple enough, but is it really that easy?

Last year I found myself enjoying my job less and less. Getting in my car at the same time every day, driving through traffic to then sit in the same office for 8 hours doing the same work day in day out. I was forever getting in trouble for playing on my phone or being on the internet (always looking up something fun to do or somewhere exciting to go), and 4 weeks annual leave just wasn't cutting it.

But I'd been doing the same job for 6 years, how could I do anything else, and what would I do?

I'd always wanted to travel and see as much of the world as possible, and finally after almost 5 years Scotty felt the same. Up until then he hadn't had much of a desire to travel and all of our trips over the past 5 years had been between Australia and New Zealand to visit family. Don't get me wrong, family is one of the most important things in life, but it's trying to find the right balance between spending time with family and travelling to other parts of the world to fulfil my dream to travel.

When a position came up at Clontarf we thought it was too good to be true. Starting work at 3pm each day, having 3 day weekends and getting 13 weeks annual leave, this was like a dream come true. But then came all the questions... How will I go supervising teenage students, will I be a good mentor, how will I cope when they don't listen to my instructions?

Scotty was sure I would do a great job and worked hard to convince me of the same. (The fact that he wouldn't need to drive into Leederville every day to meet me for lunch anymore was a draw card I'm sure!) Surrounding yourself with positive people that encourage you to take on new challenges helps when faced with big decisions. I was lucky to have the support of my husband and the encouragement from family and friends that it would be a fantastic opportunity for us. You should never try and make big decisions on your own, ask people that are close to you for their opinion and advice and hopefully the decision won't seem as overwhelming.

The next big decision we had to make was about where we would live. They offered us an apartment at Clontarf as part of our package as boarding supervisors. But we'd just spent the last 18 months buying furniture and decorating our house, what would we do with all our stuff? After a lot of discussion and weighing up the pros and cons we decided to take the leap, sell all our furniture and a lot of our belongings and move into the one bedroom apartment. We knew it was going to be a big move and a big adjustment, but in the long run we'd be so much better off. Sometimes it means doing things that might be out of your comfort zone to better your situation, even if they do seem scary and overwhelming at the time.

So, it was a new year and a whole new beginning. We sold all our furniture and gave lots of my kitchen stuff to a family friend who was moving out of home for the first time. It was nice to be able to help someone out by giving her things we didn't need anymore. We have five meals a week at work so didn't really need any cooking/kitchen things, and needed to minimise the amount of things we were going to take to the apartment. It felt liberating downsizing all of our belongings and clearing out so many material things we just didn't need. It gave us a sense of freedom knowing that we weren't tied down with a house full of furniture, and now means that we're in a better position to head overseas when the time is right.

The best advice I can give is that if you're in a job that you don't like or that doesn't suit your lifestyle anymore, then see what else is out there. And try not to let money be the deciding factor in what you choose to do. Take a leap, follow your dreams. We spend so much time each day at work, we need to make sure it's doing something we love.