Today was my last day at my full-time job.
In July this year, I started questioning what my everyday life looks like. Work, lunch, gym/run and I was left with ~3 hours that I could spend either with my family or being miserable because tomorrow I have to go to work again. Also, the job itself, which was taking the biggest part of my day, wasn't satisfying for me. It felt like when the half-year review ended it was already a full-year review, where I had to stand on my head to prove that I was worthy, always reminded that we all have to develop new skills, where everyday work was defined by deadlines and pushing features as fast as we can. But to be honest I was unsatisfied with my job that I don't remember what got me there in the first place. When I analyze with cold head how an average day at work looked like it wasn't bad at all. I liked my coworkers and tasks weren't so bad, but it always felt like a chore, the only motivation being money at the end of the month.
For some time I tried to "fix" my attitude toward this life, talked with friends who kinda thrive with full-time jobs, play corporate politics, get promotions and after work focus on their hobbies. But it hasn't worked for me, I wanted something different. I'm still relatively young (27 y.o.) but I didn't see how this could change in the future if I did not make any drastic changes. There is this cliche: "if you change nothing, nothing will change", I guess in this case it was true. I believe I'm ready to start my "hero's journey", where I don't want to save the world, I want to go for my own adventure, carve my own path and fight challenges that will come my way.
It all sounds dramatic, which wasn't my goal. I guess I could live this life till the end and find peace and happiness outside work which I would treat just as a source of cash for other goals. Many people would say that this is the optimal way of living. And I'm not saying I will not return to this. I would say there is an 80% chance that in 6 months I will start to send my resume to find another full-time job (but maybe this time avoiding big corporations) and probably would have to delete this article :D But at least I could stop asking myself "what if?".
So obvious question is what I will be doing? I think I will try to create some small SaaS or web service. I've been following "indie makers" community for around 8 years already, and it has always been in the back of my head to try this journey. Also, I believe this is the path that can replace my salary (at least in some part) the fastest as I'm giving myself 6 months for profitability until I start the job hunt again. I have some ideas, have to pick one by the end of the year and start making.
Excited, a little bit scared, ready for the journey.