When in my life did it feel like my motivation for what I was talented in, was drifting away?

When I moved to America, and could not get an advertising copy job, I jumped at the first job that paid decent money, which was commissions administration.

My writing came to a screeching halt.

Year after year passed, without the inspiration to write, ever emerging.

Every time I sat down to write, I couldn’t.

I came up empty.

I thought that maybe the writing chapter of my life had ended.

Then I walked out of a job in 2010.

Lots of amazing things happened that year, and I believe it was partly because I did not work during the next 6 months, that lots of amazing things happened.

I learned to meditate, after reading the book, “How God Changes Your Brain.”

Learning to meditate brought gifts.

I became a low maintenance person.

Those early years of meditation resulted in some beautiful, and hard to explain inspirations:

Minoo Jha

· 7y

What is your most interesting meditation experience?

Hi, You asked, What is your most interesting meditation experience? After I stared meditating, I have had a few telepathic experiences. One of them was waking up in the middle of the night with a story about 3 Benches. I do not normally write fiction pieces on my blog, so it was very unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night with the idea of this 3 Benches Story. The next day I called my friend in Klamath and I asked her, “Hey Nadya, whatcha been up to?” like I usually do. I got goosebumps when she said, “Oh, I am building a bench for my backyard.” I felt the only explanation for the mysterious appearance of the 3 Benches idea in my mind was because of a telepathic experience with Nadya. By now I must have aroused your curiosity about what this 3 Benches story is all about. It took another 6 years for me to actually get down to being able to write it and publish it on my blog. Here it is. I hope you enjoy reading it. Everyone Has Their Purpose Everyone has their purpose. I just hadn’t discovered mine. We were 3 benches in a park. Bench 1 clearly knew its purpose. It was to enjoy the rich conversations and the books of the people who sat on Bench 1. Bench 1 was into mind-expanding things. Bench 1 was always going on and on about philosophy and epistemology and such, things which, if they didn’t entirely go over my head, only somewhat interested me. I am curious and I have a love for words. These two personality traits made me listen to whatever Bench 1 said. Bench 2 was clearly status-seeking, a name-dropper. Bench 2 lived for the stylish, well-heeled, and well-known people that sat on Bench 2. Bench 2 would tell you that Bench 2 occupants that day included people who wore Manolo Blahnik Hangisi shoes, or toted the most expensive Louis Vuitton bags, or drove up in a Tesla Model X P100 D. As for me, neither status, nor mind expanding ideas, excited me, or held the key to my soul. I registered everything Bench 1 and Bench 2 said. I was curious enough for that. Bench 1 and Bench 2 knew they had a perfect listener in me. So they shared everything and anything that excited them, or troubled them, with me. And I would listen. But truthfully, I was interested in an "interesting what other benches find interesting" way. I knew, there had to be something more. One day, an older woman sat on my bench and said the rosary. As she sat there, moving from bead to bead, and repeating the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, I caught a glimpse of what my purpose was. Another day, two young men sat on my bench. One of the young men had the book Awakening Loving-Kindness by Pema Chodron in his hands. He explained to the other young man what meditating on loving-kindness meant. I caught a glimpse of my purpose again. Another day, I watched a man put a mat on the grass, put his hands up, then put his right hand over his left hand, then bend down and put his hands on his knees, then stand back up and bend down, placing his knees, hands and head on the floor, all the while reciting prayers. I caught a glimpse of my purpose again. One day, two Hindu studies major students sat on my bench. One of them read this passage from the Bhagavad Gita out aloud to the other: “The man who sees me in everything and everything within me will not be lost to me, nor will I ever be lost to him. He who is rooted in oneness realizes that I am in every being; wherever he goes, he remains in me. When he sees all being as equal in suffering or in joy because they are like himself, that man has grown perfect in yoga.” I caught a glimpse of my purpose again. Another day, two Jesuit priests chose me for their bench. They spoke of wondrous things, such as St. Augustine hearing a childlike voice telling him to “take up and read”. For days after, I kept thinking about that. And then one day, it happened. A man with a backpack and a stick entered the area where our 3 benches were located. He looked weary and he looked tired and he looked disheveled and he looked unkempt. I knew he was the kind of man Bench 1 and Bench 2 would be least interested in, even revolted by. He looked at all 3 of us benches, and then made his way to where I was, even though I was the furthest bench. He put his backpack down on one end of the bench. Then, using the backpack as a pillow for his head, he sprawled across the length of the bench, covered his face with a dirty shirt, and fell into a deep sleep, from which he awoke, hours later, after which he picked up his things and left. He came back the next day and did the same thing; and he came back the day after and did the same thing again. At the end of day 3, after he had woken up and left, Bench 1 said to me: “Tough luck 3, to have a homeless guy single you out and make a habit of it.” I didn’t say anything. Bench 2 added, “Better accept it, 3. You might be stuck with him at least till the weather changes!” I didn’t say anything. If only Bench 1 and Bench 2 knew…..at last, I had found my purpose. The End Note to Readers: The original idea for this story came to me in the form of a miraculous coincidence - which happened in October of 2012, almost 6 years ago. Though I had the idea for this story 6 years ago, I wasn’t able to put it into words. So it just lingered with me, all these years, until a few days ago. Here's how it happened. On the morning of April 27, 2018, while riding the bus to work and reading a book, suddenly these words came to my mind, “Everyone has their purpose”. My mind, next inexplicably, jumped to my unwritten 3 benches story. The next thing I knew, I was writing furiously. This story, that had been waiting to be told for 6 years, got told.

I also decided to become a freelancer in my field.

That turned out to be an inspired decision.

Freelancing turned out to be both more financially rewarding for me, and more suited to me.

And on December 27, 2010, I created a blog on Google Blogger, and started writing.

My blog is now in its 16th year, and I have published 788 posts.

One of my posts is a post reflecting on my career switch from advertising copy to commissions administration, and how unthinkable that was —written from a humorous angle.

If the twists and turns in your life made you switch careers, and your second and third careers were dramatically different from your first, I think you will be able to relate to it.

Minoo Jha

· 4y

Is it possible to become interested in something after spending enough time with it or does the interest always have to be there from the start?

Totally! I was completely uninterested in spreadsheets, Excel and numbers, but when I switched careers from a copywriter to a commissions analyst, the more time I spent as an analyst, the more interested I became in spreadsheets, Excel and numbers. In 2010, I walked out of a commissions analyst job at a tech company where I had been for 5 years, and a few months later, I started a blog. Here’s a piece I wrote about the role of words vs numbers in my life and the genesis of that blog: Words vs Numbers The Words , who had gathered to discuss the issue at hand, were clearly flustered. "Discombobulated, unsettled, unnerved, agitated, ruffled, upset, bothered, disquieted, disturbed, perturbed, disconcerted, confused, thrown off " is how Thesaurus put it. Among the Words gathered were prominent Word luminaries such as Action, Strategy, Thoughtful, Biography, Explanation and Analogy. "It is ridiculous" said Exclamation. "It is preposterous" said Emphasis. "It is unthinkable" said Enunciate. "We should do something about it" said Action. "Like what?" said Curious. "With her making the career switch to a Commissions Analyst, what could we possibly do?” "Of all the things she could have chosen to become…a Commissions Analyst!" exclaimed Judgment…."a Commissions Analyst!" "There should be a law against Copywriters becoming Commissions Analysts" said Legal. "How can you go from working in so many different ad agencies...and writing the Fiesta campaign...and starting Purple Patch...to crunching numbers?" said Biography, shaking her head. "A rhetorical question" said Rhetoric. "Calculating commissions? Sounds as dull as ditchwater to me" said Analogy. "Apparently not to her" said Explanation. "What on earth do Commission Analysts do?" said Clueless. "I will have to write it out, but be warned. Even when I do, it will make no sense to you" said Explanation. Explanation strode to the whiteboard and wrote, "60000/500000 x 0.03"on the whiteboard. The Words looked at what Explanation had written, open mouthed. "Wow, don't understand it. And don't understand what she sees in it" said Incredulous. "What does it even mean?" said Clueless. "Sales divided by Quota multiplied by Rate. It's a commission calculation". "She stares at screens full of this the whole day" continued Explanation. "We need to come up with a plan" said Strategy. "The goal is to get Minoo back into words. I want us all to put on our thinking hats. Let's meet again in a week with ideas. And so they met again. At that next and crucial meeting, some of the Words looked more excited than others. They had the look of those who have ideas they can't wait to share. "I have just the thing" said Eager, "Let's have Minoo kidnapped and taken back to India. Someone from her advertising past in India will be sure to offer her a job, and she will be back to being a words practitioner again." The idea fell flat. Eager looked dejected. "I know, I know" said Devious, "Let's have Minoo make mistakes in her work as a Commissions Analyst. Then she will have to come up with creative ways of explaining the mistakes. She will have to use words to do that." All the other Words glared at Devious for this inappropriate suggestion. "I was only joking" said Devious. All the Words then turned and looked at Thoughtful. Everyone knew Thoughtful would have an idea. "I was thinking" said Thoughtful, "What Minoo needs is a creative pause. A creative pause will spur her creativity. I am willing to bet if Minoo has a creative pause, she will automatically start writing again." "But how would we engineer a creative pause?" said Practical. "I know, I know" said Devious, "You know how Minoo loves her telecommuting?" "Yes," said the other Words… "Well," said Devious, "If a boss got in the way of that, Minoo is likely to leave her job." "And that will produce the creative pause …yes I totally approve of that" said Thoughtful. The other Words who respected anything Thoughtful said, nodded their heads in agreement, shaking their heads Indian style. Meanwhile, Devious was as pleased as punch. Known for joking around, he couldn't believe he had come up with the winning idea. And so the Words put their heads together. They plotted on planting ideas in the ear of the boss of Minoo's direct boss - ideas that were in direct contradiction to what Minoo would like to hear. As to why it had to be the boss of Minoo's boss, and not Minoo's boss, it was because Minoo's boss was deemed too kind to cause any inconvenience and trouble for Minoo. The idea the Words put in the head of the boss of Minoo's boss (and it was while he was sleeping), was that he should ask Minoo to account for every hour she spent working from home, and to also question her current system for calculating commissions. And things went exactly as the Words expected. The boss of Minoo's boss asked her to account for every hour of the time she spent working from home. He also started questioning how she did her commission calculations, even though she was using a system she had refined over the years, and which was both accurate and fast. Being asked to account for every hour of her time and being questioned about her well-developed system did not sit well with Minoo, and she was rattled. She exchanged words with the boss’s boss again and again. Eventually, tired of exchanging words, actually tired of the psychological demands of dealing with the boss of her boss, one Monday, Minoo did not show up for work. Shortly after, she announced her resignation. The Words couldn't have been happier. They high fived each other. According to Thoughtful, it was now just a question of time before the creative pause bore fruit. And that's exactly what happened. By walking out of her job, Minoo gave herself a well-deserved creative pause. And this creative pause soon spurred Minoo's creativity. Before 6 months was out, she started a blog, and began to write and post online. She wrote posts about losing weight, she wrote posts about buying cars, she wrote posts about starting businesses, she wrote posts about doing taxes, she wrote posts about being unique, she wrote posts about being a virtual worker. She wrote and wrote and wrote. She even wrote a Valentine's Day post about Cupid getting his groove back. The Words were ecstatic. And guess what…the Numbers were happy too. Because Minoo decided to continue her engagement with numbers by becoming a Commission Administration Consultant So her numbers work resumed, but she still found time to keep up with her blog during the weekend. And she is doing both even today. All’s well that ends well, as they say. And now you know the genesis of my blog, Minoo Jha Life Strategies.