I quit medicine to surf. It made me miserable.

I quit medicine to build a life around surfing. Remote work, spontaneous swell trips, twenty days at the coast whenever I wanted them. But when I finally cashed all of that in on a surf trip to Peniche, Portugal—I was miserable. This is the story of what I got wrong about it, what it took me years to understand about why the "dream setup" wasn't enough, and how I ended up building a version of work-and-life that actually holds together. If you're standing at your own version of that decision. Hating your work, and loving the thing you'd rather be doing, thinking the answer is to quit and rearrange everything around the thing you love—this one is for you. — Chapters: 0:00 - A special kind of misery 0:34 - Why do I feel so bad? 1:08 - How I got there 1:31 - Surfing took over my life 2:02 - So I left medicine 2:39 - To take a job in online marketing 2:51 - And booked a dreamy surf trip 3:03 - What it actually felt like 3:29 - But I was miserable 4:28 - The meaningless work, made surfing meaningless as well 5:06 - Falling completely apart 5:59 - So what was wrong? 6:16 - What I had right & wrong 6:46 - So I quit again 7:23 - So if you are about to make a decision... — Find me on Socials Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris.genau/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.genau LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgenau/ — 🎥 Links to my Videos 🎥 Personal & Story 🌊 The Comeback Video - https://youtu.be/7kE1F3PNoGo Surfskate 🌊🛹 Frontside Bowl Flow and Video Analysis - https://youtu.be/ZI1QwxrG8oQ How to do a Backside Kickturn on your Surfskate - https://youtu.be/E21HwgoWeME Your Surfskate Is Lying To You (3 Stance Mistakes) - https://youtu.be/4LHpB_heeCU How to Skate a Pumptrack - https://youtu.be/DptlkoXbYy8 How to Frontside Snap with Video Analysis — https://youtu.be/doFl7Lc5bqI Surfskate Video Speed Generation - https://youtu.be/AWsKoc6C-YQ Surfskate Video Re-Entry - https://youtu.be/x1lutu2aH5o — 🎵 Music 🎵 "Not There Yet" — Evan Honer "Too Far Gone" — Evan Honer "It's A Home" — Evan Honer "Discovery" — Makeup and Vanity Set (Musicbed) "stellar reflections" — Under the Stars (Musicbed) #landlockedsurfer #surflife #personalessay #videoessay #medicine #careerchange #quitmyjob #surftrip #peniche #portugalsurf #chrisgenau #storytelling #minidocumentary #surfculture #lifechange