Convenience. Comfort. Status Quo. Inconvenience. Discomfort. Breakthrough.

What’s the scariest thing you have thought about doing?

In 2010, I gave myself a gift.

It was an unusual gift.

It was a gift of inconvenience, discomfort, insecurity, and uncertainty.

I gave myself the gift of voluntary unemployment.

I’ll say it without packaging it in big words and fancy terminology.

I quit my job.

In doing so, I had to confront 4 facts:

I had no income.

I had nothing to do.

I had no idea what to do next.

And I did not know what the future held.

But sometimes, this is exactly the kind of reality, and the jumping off point your life needs.

You end the status quo.

And when you end the status quo, you say goodbye to probabilities, and you open the door to possibilities.

Exciting possibilities you cannot even conceive of.

Over the next few years, I found myself doing one inconceivable and improbable thing after another.

Within months of quitting my job, on an idea stimulated by a phone conversation, I called Xactly training to ask if I could do the $3000 3-day Xactly Administrators Course.

If they said yes, I would become the first Commissions Analyst to do Xactly training, without being sponsored by an Xactly client.

When you do brave things, doors will open.

The trainer Sonia (bless her heart) got special permission for me to be allowed into the program.

I signed an NDA, and it was a done deal.

The next thing I knew, I was introduced by Sonia to Don Gootee, the manager of an Xactly Implementations Company.

Don was short a resource, and wanted to know if I would be interested in joining his team as a contractor.

Though the position did not have much to offer in terms of money, I couldn't have been more excited.

It was as if someone had told me I had won the lottery.

The prospect of working as an Implementations Consultant had me over the moon.

Long story short, within just 6 months of quitting my job, I was working on Xactly implementations - for exciting companies, companies with a future, companies such as Splunk, and Fusionio (which was subsequently acquired by SanDisk), and Linda.com (which was subsequently acquired by LinkedIn).

Don also had me do Xactly unit testing for Marc Benioff’s Salesforce.com.

Then the next thing I knew, another commissions implementations company was interested in me contracting for them.

So there I was, writing White Papers, creating Functional Requirements Documents, and doing interim commissions administration for very young clients like White Hat, hallowed companies like Varian Medical, and hot-shot companies like Paypal.

Best of all, in order to equip me to deliver value to their Varicent clients, Maneesh, the founder and GM of the implementation company, paid for me to go to Toronto, Canada, so I could be Varicent certified.

My life had taken a marvelous turn.

And it was because I had been daring enough to give up comfort, convenience, and the status quo.

As of today I am still a free agent, still keeping the channel open on discomfort and inconvenience and breakthroughs.

I do not know who I am going to work for next, or even when one assignment will end, and a new one will begin.

But this I do know…

I know by being brave, I keep the channel open to possibilities instead of probabilities.

And so much more can happen when you keep the channel open to possibilities instead of probabilities, much of it marvelous and wonderful.

Yes, a brave new world awaits those who are willing to get comfortable doing something uncomfortable.

A brave new world awaits those who can give up convenience and security for inconvenience and insecurity.

A brave new world awaits those who can give up the certainty of the familiar and the known, for the uncertainty and strangeness of the unknown.

No matter how low the initial pay off, no matter the sacrifices and adjustments you might need to make, no matter the false starts, wrong turns, set-backs and missteps, taking the path of possibilities versus probabilities will eventually lead to a breakthrough.

Make that ‘breakthroughs’.

You will learn things you did not think you could learn.

You will achieve things you did not know you could achieve.

You will take on things you did not know you could take on.

You will enjoy things you did not know you could enjoy.

You will cherish things you did not know you could cherish.

Your world will expand, and then expand again, and then expand again, and never stop expanding.

And you will discover, when all is said and done, all it took was for you to be unsure of yourself, but be willing to put your trust in God (and the universe).

So what will it be?

Convenience.  Comfort.  Status Quo.

Inconvenience.  Discomfort.  Breakthrough.

The choice is yours.

P.S.  Since quitting my job in 2010, I have had more fun,  and done more things, than what people in my field normally get to do.  Moreover, my itinerant status, besides giving me exposure to a variety of compensation plans and commission software tools, has also given me the pleasure of meeting different people in different companies, and the privilege of working with many brilliant bosses, and on many fantastic teams. Many of the people I have met have become friends for life. I would not want to turn back the clock on any of this.  I would not change this for the world.

And furthermore, let’s not forget, I started writing the Minoo Jha Life Strategies blog, the same year I quit my job - this blog was born on December 27, 2010, to be precise. 

For 15 years prior to that, I had never picked up a pen.  Something had clearly been released in me the day I walked out of that job.  My dormant spirit, and my dormant imagination, and a newfound courage, were awakened. In escaping the status quo, an ethos was created for that awakening.

If I hadn’t walked out of that job, would I have started the blog, and would I be writing this, my 379th post?  I seriously doubt it.

You can’t write a blog without actively choosing fear.

When you sit down to write a post, you fear being boring, you fear being repetitive, you fear being out of touch, you fear being redundant, and you fear being irrelevant.

I face that fear every week, as I sit down to write.

Convenience.  Comfort.  Status Quo.

Inconvenience.  Discomfort. Breakthrough.

The fact I am still writing tells you what my spirit has chosen.

As always, thanks for sharing my Journey to Wisdom, Meaning and a Better Life.  Like you I am trying to find my way through this complex maze we call life, and I am honored to have you share my journey, as I continue to seek the wisdom hidden in plain sight.

Thanks to Ajay for his compliments on my last post, and thanks to the rest of you for your likes, pins, shares, tweets and votes…..much appreciated….M ……a Pearl Seeker like you. 

Happy Birthday to those with September birthdays.  Hope you use your birthday month to birth something new and wonderful in your life. Don’t be afraid to give up convenience, comfort and the status quo to birth something new and wonderful in your life.

Posts to help you on your journey…

Unleashing Your Creativity

The Element of Release From Inhibition And Its Hope For Discovering Our Creative Self

Pursuing A Dream 

What’s Next For You?

Maybe It's Time For Freshness

Maybe It's Time To Walk In The Direction Of Your Fears

The Element of Rising to the Occasion and Understanding Ordinary People Can Do Extraordinary Things

The Element of Taking the Initiative and Its Hope for Becoming a Star At Work and In Life

The Element of Creating A New Reality and Its Hope for Living A Powerful Life

Maybe It's Time To Rock The World

The Element of the Creative Pause And Its Hope for Breakthroughs