How the Pursuit of Financial Security Stole Precious Years of My Life

My sense of security and safety should come from within.

I knew in 2012 that I was leaving my job.

It took another five years to revisit the idea of leaving. I finally had the courage to walk away last year.

I loved my job. But I also knew that there was no more room for personal or career growth. I had exceeded all that I wanted to achieve in my position as a classroom teacher and I had known this for many, many years.

But why did it take so long to go from knowing that I wanted to leave to actually doing it?

To be honest, I can (and did) come up with several reasons. But the simple answer is that I wanted security.

Specifically, I wanted financial security.

Financial security was everything to me

I did not want to walk away from my job until I had a certain amount of money saved in an emergency fund. My plan was to use this money when I left as a ‘cushion’ until I had another source of income.

It was a splendid idea.

However, once I finally had that amount saved, I came up with an even larger amount that I felt I needed to have, and I repeated this process several more times. Each milestone I achieved only paved the way for a loftier financial goalpost.

My pursuit of financial security became a never-ending cycle.

Meanwhile, my dreams remained unexplored, locked away in a vault of misplaced priorities.

And in case you think I’m the only one, I can tell you that I have numerous former colleagues who say they also want to leave but feel that they can’t.

Really, they mean that they won’t. They won’t leave until they have achieved a certain level of financial security and they won’t walk away from a reliable monthly paycheck.

“The seduction of safety is always more dangerous than the illusion of uncertainty.”-Robin Sharma

Redefining financial security for myself

I did not realize it at the time but what I was doing was putting my sense of security in external financial things. A bank account, a monthly paycheck, a job.

Having these financial things made me feel secure. They made me feel safe.

But the reality is that I could have lost all these material things at any time by things out of my control. How secure were they really? How safe was I, really?

Instead, my sense of security and safety should have come from someplace else: It should have come from within me.

I should have realized that I had skills and talents that could not be taken away from me.

I taught Chemistry & Math. There is a shortage of Math and Science teachers in most parts of the world. Because I have a degree in Chemistry, I knew how to make products such as soaps and lotions.

Moreover, my love for writing held immense potential.

I was so fixated on external financial things to feel safe and secure; I could not see what was on the inside of me.

I did not acknowledge my unique talents, skills, my strength, and my unyielding determination.

“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on it’s own wings.Always believe in yourself” — Unknown

Security is a thief of time

There is nothing wrong with wanting security of any type. The need for security is a fundamental desire in humans and it appears second on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

But with everything, there is a price to be paid as I discussed in my article, We Have to Sacrifice to Achieve What We Want. There is no free lunch.

My obsession with wanting financial security cost me precious time that I will never get back.

That was time that I should have been using to better understand myself. It was time that I should have spent discovering and doing the things I loved.

The truth of the matter is that I should have been going after my dreams a long time ago.

I neglected my own aspirations by allowing the need for security and safety to control almost every decision that I made.

I don’t want to see you make the same mistake that I did.

Conclusion: Embrace what’s within

The pursuit of financial security, while important, should never come at the expense of your dreams and your aspirations. There has to be balance.

Take a step back and realize that true security lies in embracing your individuality — your skills, your talents, your strength, and your determination — just to name a few.

Don’t allow the need for financial security to rob you of your most precious resource: Your time.