Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other.We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.” (2nd king 7:3)

We spend most of our time at work, yet many people get stuck in  jobs they do not like or in an environment that do not foster their growth, a dry environment, an enviroment that sucks your energy rather than energizing you, a toxic environment with toxic people. An environment full of negative energy, a place where you cannot give your full potential because there are more limitations than opportunities. 

They sit like the four men with leprosy, unfortunately, unlike the four lepers who were waiting to die, these people do not know that when you stay in such environment you will surely die. By death I refer to career death which can lead to psychological, financial and even spiritual death.

The fact is, the results do not lie, and they speak for themselves. Unfortunately you cannot produce massive results in such an environment because it only drains your energy. The more you stay there, the closer your career gets to the grave and the less potential future employers or business partners you will attract because people want to work with people who bring the positive energy and attitude.

What should you do if you are in such an environment?

The lepers recognised that whether they sit at the gates or go to the city, they will die. They decided to take a risk of surrendering to the Aramean because there was a chance of survival, even if the chance was slim, it was better than sitting at the city gate where death was 100% guarantee.

Recognise that you will surely die and take the risk of moving out. Remember staying there is a 100% guarantee towards your career death, you will become cranky, demotivated and unattractive. If you stepped out, there is no guarantee it will be easy either but there is some chance of redeeming yourself and transforming your career.

Alternatively decide to change your environment so that it works for you, but you cannot just sit there and do nothing. You will die.

My philosophy has been, I would rather make a wrong decision than remain indecisive because even a wrong decision will teach you lessons that will propel you to a higher level. It maybe painful but the outcome will be beautiful.