quit fast
It didn't work out.
I was curious and I wanted to challenge myself.
Like I said before in my last post, I want to get really good at banter, persuasion, socializing.
Could I learn sales, specifically the tasks of a sales representative?
I took a cold-calling job for one month, a crash course in discomfort, in persuasion, in rejection. The high volume of calls! Using just my tone and my script to get someone to agree to an appointment! I had one goal: learn fast.
About the middle of the month, I switched to seeing it as a learning sprint and a test.
That wasn't the case for the start of the month. I thought I had finally found my long-term job.
Something that I seem to forget is that not everything you try has to last.
Sometimes you try it, learn from it, and leave, fast.
I don't have to stay in something in order to learn from it.
Starting out, I applied accelerated learning.
I would go to the wetlands at a nature preserve, sit on the benches and walk around, practicing objection handling out loud. Or practice my script out loud. I deliberately drilled into my brain how to handle ānot interestedā or "you can send an email." I would record the script on the Voice Memos app and play it back, listening to my intonation and cadence, trying to capture authenticity as best I could, for a company or creative endeavor that wasn't even mine.
Before my first call, I would always go into the mindset of just making the call, I don't have to succeed. Always having to succeed is too much pressure! I see life as sort of that way too. We can choose to succeed and choose to put 110% of our energy and enthusiasm into a goal/milestone/task, but there is no saying whether we will succeed or not. Or maybe we do succeed if we define success on our own terms.
I guess I succeeded in this job by finding out it wasn't for me, that a sales-heavy job isn't for me. And receiving that reminder that things don't have to last as well as feeling less shame now for being a serial quitter.
There were learning projects that I quit in the past because the timing was off. I plan on continuing them.
Before dialing, I would perform Mel Robbins' "5-second rule" which I believe is one of the best personal rules I've ever heard about.
The tasks and process was fast, intense. The high volume of calls, the monotony of using a script my boss wanting me to say it the same way to everyone, and the compensation structure wasn't for me.
I learned a lot, about people and about myself. One realization: that I thrive in slower, more thoughtful environments.
I guess anyone who knows me could have told you that.
This was also the case for another job I quit recently, one that involved heavy multi-tasking and detailed linear procedures. I seem to always want to go out of order, in my thinking and my routines. And I don't like keeping many tabs open on my laptop, but that's just a personal choice.
All this quitting reminds me of a quote from the book "Late Bloomers" by Rich Karlgaard that I recently finished reading: "Quitting, done for the right reason, is not giving up. It's not submitting or throwing in the towel. It is saying that a job just doesn't suit us. It is trying something and not liking it. In this way, quitting is actually part of the process of discovery. We define who we are by quitting, whether it's a club, school, job, or hobby. Forced adherence or unquestioned devotion leads to atrophy - to slowly dying. But quitting is the process of growing, the process of living"
Accelerated learning helped me leave, fast.
I feel no shame, just clarity.