Why I Quit My Secure Job for the Unknown

Ever fantasize about walking away from your "secure" job but talk yourself out of it because it doesn't make sense on paper? 

Tired of staying stuck in situations that drain your soul just to keep other people comfortable?

In this solo episode, I'm getting vulnerable about the riskiest season of my life—when I walked away from stability and into the great unknown (spoiler: it was the best decision I ever made).

We're talking about the messy middle of career transitions, why people-pleasing will keep you stuck forever, and how choosing your own peace is always worth more than maintaining everyone else's comfort.

I'm sharing the real lessons about:

🚪 Walking away from jobs that drain your energy (even when it makes zero financial sense)
🎯 Taking entrepreneurial leaps before you feel "ready" (because you never will)
✨ Living aligned with your values instead of chasing approval from people who don't pay your bills
💡 Why the scariest career moves usually lead to the most fulfilling chapters
🔥 Overcoming people-pleasing patterns that keep you playing small professionally

This is for the women founders, creatives, and career-changers who know they're meant for more but keep talking themselves out of taking the leap. we're talking about trusting your intuition over other people's opinions and building a life that actually fits who you're becoming.

Transcript

Jazz: 0:00

Why are we so afraid to take a chance on ourselves? Hi, I'm Jazzmyn. Welcome to All Our Parts if you're new here. Welcome back to All Our Parts if you are a regular. So grateful to have you either way. And today, I want to share about a recent insight that I've had about myself. Basically, I am not averse to risk. I'm not averse to risk. i have always believed in taking a risk and speaking up even when it's been uncomfortable even when it has not served me in the moment i always have felt the deep nudge to call something out learning to call things in better Call it out, call it like I see it, and deal with the residue or aftermath later. Now, I used to think that was really impulsive. And at times, it was definitely me being super impulsive. But now I realize it's what's allowed me to lean deeper into trusting my intuition. When I was working in quasi-government at a housing authority, that was probably one of the hardest jobs I'd ever had because I was waking up every day at war with myself and crying in the office, feeling like I am working against my values. I'm not doing any good here because I'm working within a system that doesn't want to see people do better. And I'm fighting myself right before I've got to do work. And it was truly one of the first instances where I was really at odds with my intuition. I will say it triggered a very significant flight response. I was at the beach maybe every other week, it felt like, booking just a place to get away. I got really sick. Like when people talk about stress being a contributor to your physical health, that shit is real and it was terrifying. But that was just my body telling me, this is not the job for me. And I know that part of the reason I stayed at that job as long as I did was I had a manager at the time who would constantly remind me that I should be really grateful for where I was that for my age there were so many people that would want my position and that when it's my time I will get my kudos but I don't need to get it now and I believed her there was a part of me that believed I needed to do my time I think so many of us who are young and ambitious find ourselves in these situations where we have people who stifle us or want our achievements to build them up and not necessarily be congruent with the life that we imagined for ourselves and I stuck around at war at odds with myself and trying to make a difference and then COVID happened and I was like I can't do this I had to call out a lot I was so sick I had to call out so much and it the job took everything out of me and my final just like I had it was we were sitting in a staff meeting arguing as we had always been doing talk about a dysfunctional staff I wish I had like video clips from this place. It was like WWE. But I remember sitting in that circle and again, impulsive, but very in line with my intuition. We're sitting in that staff meeting. We're all supposed to go around in a circle and say if we're interested in moving forward. And my body just did not let me lie. It did not let me convince myself that i could even continue there and i said everyone i really enjoyed working with you but i quit and i'll send you my notice i didn't have a notice written up i didn't intend to quit in that moment but my mind my body and soul everything was like if you sit here and lie you are going to be going against everything your intuition is telling you And so I didn't have a backup plan. Not true because I was starting grad school that fall, but I certainly didn't have a backup plan of what I would do that summer, what I would, how I would make money while I was in grad school. Like I really didn't have a plan, but I trusted that there was going to be something more on the other side. And there was. I door dashed for a little bit and then I drove Instacart At the same time, it was flexible and allowed me to focus on my studies. But I could not continue to deteriorate simply because I was not living my truth. grad school happens we hit the end of the year and man oh man that's a story for another time but I'm finding myself again in this situation where I either speak my truth or say nothing and it in that situation it came down to loyalty who was I going to choose to be loyal to? It was a very calculated risk. Who am I willing to burn a bridge forever with this one person to potentially help and support this group of people? That living out of alignment and living with things left unsaid I had really bad insomnia that had gotten triggered. I was cloudy AF. I was contemplating like, just let me graduate and let me stop like now. I'm done my hours. Let me stop now, but I can't do this. But I pushed through because I care about my clients and I worked really intently to ensure that it did. and bleed over into my client work as much as it couldn't. And that situation worked out eventually, but it was a really big risk because this person who was saying things could have been right and I could have lost everything, but my gut was telling me that they weren't right so many of us don't speak up don't make the next move we don't do the cringe thing because of fear fear of what people have told us fear of what people are telling us the fear of how people are going to think about us if we do the thing but the only person that that we are really doing a disservice is ourselves and we are going to feel the brunt of it the most. It might feel like that relationship is tampered or it might feel like there's some conflict that's been created, but you have created the biggest conflict with yourself. And man, that is a hard one to restore once you have gotten into a habit of abandoning yourself and people pleasing and doing things for the good and comfort of other people and so now as I show up online and start sharing my opinions more I recognize I've never really been averse to risk but I'm learning that a lot of those resistant conflict moments that happen where I have a strong reaction to what's going on is simply because I am not living congruently. I'm not living in my truth. I am living in someone else's idea of what my truth should look like. I am living out what I believe the next step should be for me based on what society has said, based on what a manager has said, family, like whoever it may be. I'm living through their lens and I'm not living through my own lens. own and so I'm not making choices that are for me I'm not making choices that feel good for me and it's really just a fucking nightmare to be constantly living for other people's approval Like, when we think about it, how we are willing to distort ourselves and fit ourselves into a nice, neat little package every time we want someone to approve of us. It's like taking a football and putting it in a circle box.

Unknown: 11:22

Right?

Jazz: 11:22

And then hearing that this other person would actually like it in a square box. And so you do what you can to get it into the square box. But then you hear the next person likes it in a circle box. And so then you're constantly alternating this football when the football is not meant to go in either box. Put a bow on it and call it a fucking day. Okay. Put wrapping paper around it. Hell, get creative. But it does not have to go into a box and you do not have to put yourself in a box either. We are at our best. I am at my best when I am honest, when I am living in alignment with my intuition, when I am truly connected to my higher power. that is when i'm at my best that's when i'm not tired that's not that's when i'm not carrying the weight of the world i two weeks ago i had supervision and i had all of these anxieties that had just compounded like it just really started to take over and i'm sobbing in supervision And what a release it was to be held by someone and for someone to see it. And for me to have shared it without a filter, without fear of losing the relationship, without fear of it changing the relationship. Like to be so honest. And I hope that for everyone listening that whatever relationship you are in, personal, professional, that your relationships are able to hold the truest version of you. Not a version that feels comfortable for them, but your truest, honest self. And so when I think about being risk averse, I'm like, thank God. Thank God I never worried about taking a risk. Thank God I never worried about how this would impact me to the extent of stopping me. Hell, how I show up online and yap all the time. I don't even think about it anymore because I believe so much A in what I'm doing and B I believe that I get to create the life that feels good for me and I am willing to do that and the less negotiable I am about what it takes to build that life that feels good for me the better the life feels the better I feel in my relationships the better I feel with my work, the better I feel in my relationship to myself when I am honest, when I am my truest self. That also benefits everyone around me because they get the best version of me. My clients get the best version of me. And I think that's a beautiful thing. I have lived in relationships where resentment built up, where I wasn't honest about my boundaries, where I was saying yes because I believed that's what I needed to do to move forward in my work and to fill my calendar so that I can prove how busy I am and prove how successful I am and constantly going. And half of it meant nothing to me. When I started going places and then leaving, feeling like I wasted my time, I was like, I'll never... There was one specific instance. I went with a group of people to a fair. And it was a group of people that I didn't really spend a whole lot of time with. So it was pretty unusual that we were all hanging out.

Unknown: 16:04

Yeah.

Jazz: 16:05

And I remember when I left, I was like, man, I had this free day and I wasted it. And I remember going home feeling so bad. And that was the moment where I was like, I will never put myself in that situation again. Yeah. Even if I have nothing to do, that's what I'm doing that day because that's what I'm choosing. I'm choosing to do nothing. When we don't allow ourselves to take risks, when we don't allow ourselves to take chances, gosh, we are holding ourselves back from all the potential that we have, from really creating the life that feels good for us. When we withhold that from ourselves, gosh, we do ourselves such a big disservice. We literally rid ourselves from experiencing a fuller life because we are living through the lens and expectations of other people. At what point do you decide that I am going to start taking bigger risks. I am going to start taking bigger chances. I am going to put myself out there more. Playing it safe isn't going to get you anywhere. Playing it safe... You're going to stay right where you are. Or it's going to take a long fucking time to get to where you want to be. Because you're waiting for someone else to give you permission. You're waiting for someone else to tell you, yep, that's the right thing to do. Don't wait. You don't need to wait for somebody else. The only person you need permission from is you. And as long as you are not hurting anybody, as long as you are still living within your morals, your values, if it is not doing harm, then what is the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is you being at war with yourself. The worst that can happen is you not feeling good about yourself and feeling so disconnected from yourself. That's the worst that can happen. That's a pretty shitty feeling. So I invite you today to take a risk. Take a really big risk. Take a chance. Give yourself that permission to dream big and boldly. Because I promise it is worth it. Because on the other side is the life that feels good for you. That's all I got for you. I would love to hear your thoughts about this episode. I would love to hear what risks you decided to take after listening to this. You can find me on socials at healingwithjasmin, Instagram, TikTok, Substack. I write there from time to time. Also accepting new clients, accepting new therapy clients in DC, Maryland and Virginia. Also accepting coaching clients and also accepting marketing clients wellness providers who are looking to grow their businesses, build sustainability, and show the fuck up. Now that's all I have for you today. See y'all on Friday.