To Quit or Not to Quit (II) – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

And if you quit, how do you do it? Planning a resignation and seeing it through

Photo by Victor on Unsplash

As an executive and team coach, I treat Purpose as the foundation of every coaching process and of every decision in my life. That’s why, starting now, I’ve decided to name my blog ELPROPÓSITO (The Purpose). Since I started writing, I’ve wanted every post to carry a special message underneath: a firm nudge to try something new and creative and an invitation to make a change. In other words, every post should always have a Purpose. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for subscribing, reading me every Sunday and sharing this message with the people you love.

Now, to the point. So many of you read my last post (To Quit or Not to Quit) that I decided to expand on it and sketch a plan for quitting calmly and safely. After all, quitting should open new paths, ideally toward our passions, and the end result should always be a real gain in our wellbeing. Read on to see how.

My best decisions have been the ones that brought me closer to my Life Purpose. Fear is unavoidable when you decide something as big as walking away from something, someone or a group of people. The worst fear of all, though, should be quitting only to make a decision out of line with our Life Purpose, one that eventually lands us right back where we started.

Just thinking about quitting is already a big signal worth heeding. It tells us what we DON’T want, and that’s the key moment to discover what we DO want. Knowing the next step comes down to making decisions that bring us closer to our Life Purpose and to doing what we love. That will protect us on any terrain and through any storm.

The gain in wellbeing after quitting will come from feeling we made a good decision. We can only confirm that as we walk the next path, so from the start, before the big decision, we need to ask: does what I want to do bring me closer to my Life Purpose, or pull me away? The answer gives us the certainty we’re after.

So knowing our Life Purpose is essential, since every plan we pursue will flow from it. For a plan to be realistic, it has to reflect an honest self-assessment that compares where we are today with the future we want. It also has to show what our focus used to be and what we want it to be from now on. You can have a plan, but without a purpose, its heart is empty.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

"…said Keptah grimly… it has also been said that you cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself." The Physician (Taylor Caldwell)

Médico de Cuerpos y Almas

P.S. This week’s VELA:

• What I’ve been Viewing: Inside Bill’s Brain. Thanks to a great recommendation from my colleague and friend Otto Velásquez. A great documentary on Bill Gates, well worth watching on Netflix. Three episodes that show much of the genius’s life and work and, above all, his contribution to tackling humanity’s biggest challenges. Several things stood out. A quote from Warren Buffett: "It’s very important to have the right friends. If they make you a better person, it’s the best gift." And above all, his fascination with reading, which I’m also especially hooked on.
• What I’ve been Reading: Orlando Ayala, the man who made Bill Gates cry. A must-read. One powerful line stands out, and every leader should read it: "If I can’t live my deepest values at work, if we can’t be real with ourselves, how are we going to be real with our customers?"
• What I’ve been Doing: Coaching a team at a high level. This week I had the great opportunity to lead several coaching sessions. Every one of them fulfills me and fires me up. One stood out, with a team I’ve partnered with all year that lives its Values and follows its Purpose more and more. What made the difference was seeing them in a state of flow, solving an incredibly hard challenge at unimaginable speed. Congratulations, team.
• What I’ve been Learning: Hints for Case Teaching. Another great opportunity I’m enjoying is sharing what I know by teaching. Since my MBA at INCAE I’ve been fascinated by the case method, and whenever I get the chance to use a case, in class or at work, I use this great tool. This document has keys to using the case method far more effectively.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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