Freedom while still being employed

My fellow corporate slaves have gotta try this

Why can’t we taste the sweet freedom of putting in our two week notice all the time?

This question had troubled me for years.

You know what I’m talking about. Putting in your two week notice is an instant release of pressure that can only be compared to finally coming home to a (clean) bathroom after a long road trip. Ahhhhh, that’s better. It also removes that underlying hint of anxiety you forgot was there better than popping a handful of Xanax.

You still have the job, but you’re no longer controlled by it. The power is snatched from the clenching fists of your employer and is transferred to you — the employee.

It allows you to take a step back and observe the insanity ensuing all around you. You begin to notice just how ridiculous your fellow rats appear as they scurry through the corporate maze. Sniffing for that stinky cheese: promotions, raises, and more responsibilities. In exchange for one small thing… their dignity.

What if I told you that same sense of freedom is available without putting in your two week notice?

I have good news: it is.

After accepting my first job out of college, it seemed inevitable (even normal) that I’d be a nervous wreck on my first day. But to my surprise, the feeling didn’t go away on the second day, or even the second year. And it followed me from job to job. I noticed my health deteriorating but came to accept this as an unintended side effect of a biweekly paycheck.

Until one day, I dug up a nugget of unconventional wisdom buried deep within a 500+ page book called Antifragile, written by one of my invisible mentors (who doesn’t know I exist) — Nassim Taleb.

He includes one throw away line hidden in the second half of the book that most people never get to. It has the ability to transform your relationship to work in an instant. Or at least it did for me. So I thought it’d be worth sharing with you.

Write your resignation letter on your first day of a new job. If it’s not your first day, write it anyway.

Starting a new job is intimidating. As soon as you inform your new employer that you have accepted the position, that sense of excitement is quickly replaced with a new, more powerful sense of crippling anxiety.

“What if I suck?” “What if the reviews on Glassdoor were misleading, or worse, fake?” “What if I look around at my colleagues and see that the life has been drained out of them drip by drip?” I’ve been there.

That’s why the resignation letter comes in handy. I’ve written one for my last two jobs and they’ve been the best I’ve ever had. The jobs themselves haven’t necessarily been any better than my previous ones, but my perspective going into them has been significantly better.

A magical sense of freedom washes over me the second I place down my pen after writing my resignation letter. The contents of the letter itself aren’t that important, just the act of writing it is what matters. Although I do think there’s power in handwriting it.

It removes the self-inflicted pressure I place on myself. And it allows me to proceed with a “let’s see what happens” attitude.

I no longer feel the dis-ease of trying to make a name for myself, impress others, and do good work. Which, strangely enough, has enabled me to make a name for myself, impress others, and ultimately do good work.

Because I, and I alone, know I’m free thanks to that resignation letter I always keep on my desk. Ready to be submitted at a moments notice.

It helps remind me that nothing we do in life is all that serious. Any fool can trick themselves into thinking the job they are about to begin (or have been in for years) is the most important thing they’ll ever do, and most fools do.

The funny part is that your boss will think that they have complete control over you like the others, but you’ll know all along that’s not true.

Writing your resignation letter reminds you that you always have options. It acts as your secret escape path, ready whenever you may need it.

Most of us will likely end up having dozens of jobs throughout our careers. So let’s start compiling our collection of resignation letters now. Imagine how fun it will be to read through them as we sit back in our rocking chair, sipping an ice cold glass of lemonade, in retirement.

Not only will it remind us of how we felt at each stage of our careers, but we’ll also have the sweet satisfaction of knowing that nobody ever had complete control over us. No matter how prestigious the job or company may have seemed at the time.

Don’t you want to break free from the shackles of employment previously reserved for those lucky few who have put in their two week notice?

Photo by niu niu on Unsplash

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