I listened to the latest episode of my friend’s podcast the other day and its story really resounded with me. The episode tells the tale of a man who left his life behind to explore India and how that didn’t really work out very well for him.

One of the key parts of the message was near the end: that running away from something because it’s difficult is the easy way out. The difficult thing isn’t taking a leap and finding yourself – the difficult thing is staying where you are and working to improve your situation. The point was that the man thought he was running toward something new, but he was really running from where he was.

I recently quit my job at an established Toronto startup and started a new job at a well-known digital agency. Since listening to the podcast episode, I’ve been reflecting on my choices, the actions I took because of those choices, and the motivation behind them. To be completely honest, I was running from a situation, but only after trying everything I could to improve it. However, I was also running to a company that I knew I wanted to work for.

I’m proud of the choices I made and how I handled the situation. That’ll be my motivation the next time I have to make a difficult decision – any difficult one. Will I be proud of this decision in three months, or will I regret it?