Quiet Quitting (On Yourself)

“Quiet quitting” has become quite the buzz phrase lately.

If this is new to you it is referencing when employees work only the jobs assigned to them. And not going above and beyond their job description.

In other words, it’s when a worker checks out mentally, and they aren’t engaged at work.

There’s a more troubling aspect of quiet quitting though, and it’s been going on for a long, long time.

It’s when we decide to quit on ourselves. This happens the older we get. For lots of understandable reasons, we start to play it safe. We hold on to security, insurance, a pay check. Makes sense, after all, we have a lot more to lose the older we get.

But maybe, just maybe, there’s a bigger loss that we might not see.

Last year, my friend Daniel Harkavy gave me a great word and specific challenge: “The older we get,” he said, “the more risks we should take.”

At first glance, it sounds counter-intuitive. But the more I thought it, the more I decided this is how I wanted to live the rest of my life. I want to keep taking calculated risks.

To be clear, this isn’t a call to reckless, unwise decisions. But as Clint Eastwood said when he was asked why he keeps directing movies in his late 80s, “I don’t want to let the old man win.”

The first sign that we’ve quit on ourselves is when we stop dreaming. We buy into the narrative that yesterday is better than tomorrow. Let’s be clear. Aging is a natural law. Deciding which one will be better — yesterday or tomorrow — is not a natural law. It’s a decision.

Perhaps you unknowingly decided to quiet quit on yourself by staying at a job that pays well but, if you’re honest, you’re over. You’ve put your head down and tried your best but Sunday nights weigh heavy because it’s back to the grind on Monday.

Have you quiet quit on yourself, your future? It’s okay if that’s you. In fact, it’s helpful to be honest with yourself.

But if that is you, your next step is to believe that tomorrow will be better than today by betting on yourself. Start thinking through what a possible next step would be to a better, brighter tomorrow.

You don’t have to know any details. Chances are, you won’t know any. You simply have to whisper to yourself, “I’m not longer quietly quitting on myself. I’m not going to let the old person win.”

FOR You,
Jeff Henderson

 

PS. If that’s you, and honestly haven’t we all been there at some point, the first step is to clarify your situation. t’s why we created the Career Risk Assessment at JeffHenderson.com. It’s free and a first step to avoid the quiet quitting.