No prob at all. Was just hoping I didn’t discourage you. On the contrary, I hoped given a lot of detail might make you say “This might not be super easy, but I can do it.”

• Pros were travel, adventure travel, and a stable job. Learning about the world and how it works. Being exposed to very interesting people. Pay was good, and benefits / pension were great.

• Cons... a LOT of routine. In many private sector jobs a person says they get bored or unmotivated if they look at the same piece of paper or deal with the same sort of file 5, 20, 100 times a day. I did that... sometimes even more. Sure there were sometimes things to shake things up. But it’s government with a LOT of repeat bureaucratic decisions and paperwork. After doing that for 10 years, I asked myself if I really wanted to do it for another 25, or even if I did move up, did I want to just manage the same people doing the same thing I did for 25 more years.

  And in government, there is only so much room to move up. It’s a very oblong pyramid with armies of people at your level, and very few above. Someone had to often retire or die to allow you to move up. And many overzealous colleagues will do anything to climb that latter, even if it means spilling your blood to do so (and even if you did nothing bad to them). Some aspects were borderline toxic in that way. It took a TON of inner strength to put up with that, and to find peace and a mental place where it didn’t get to me.

And so I got to a point where I said I had done all I wanted to do. From that point on it would simply be variations of the same things for the next 25 years. I had an amazing go at it, and saw and experienced so much of the world, along with great career experiences. And so instead of dragging out a version of “just horizontally coasting” for the rest of my working life (since it would fall into the above cons from there on in), I opted to take a chance on myself.

Travelling the world, meeting fascinating people and making connections gave me courage to see we live on a planet of endless possibilities. I saw people outside the government pulling off the impossible and overcoming staggering obstacles to live life in no small way; up up and up (mentally, professionally, and other gains).

So I thought “why not me too? If they can do it, and if I’ve seen the world is full of endless possibilities behind just one job that eventually stagnates, why not have faith in myself and the head on my shoulders, and build the next level, for me?”

And so I did. I quit. I joined the private sector from contacts I had made, and I’m about to go into my 4th career change since leaving the government. And it has been one hell of a ride.

Do I regret it? Well, staying would’ve been the easy route. But have I grown with a much more rounded view of the world? Yeah. And economically, I’m ok too.

So that’s that. It’s a wonderful job. But like any job, sometimes a person knows they’ve milked it for all it could offer, it does have limits, and sometimes it’s on to other things.

Hope this also gives some perspective. ☺️