Cavalock Steps Out Of The Comfort Zone

Hope I'm not too late, Happy Easter everyone! Its been awhile since I blogged, and no, I wasn't back in Japan or anywhere out of the country. Been busy with work and did MAJOR life-changing decisions...but before I get to that, look what I made this afternoon!

Vanilla Meringue Tarts. It's a recipe from an episode of Michael Smith's Chef at Home. Saw it on the Asian Food Channel and decided to try it. Real easy to make and it turned out pretty good. A little sticky in the middle like cotton candy and not too sweet either.

Before heading into the oven...

and when they are done.

Now back to my life-changing decision! <^;^>

I decided to quit my job! Been in the media/advertising industry for way over 10 years now and in the last year, I been so mentally and emotionally drained by work, it's just crazy. I like doing wat I do but my current office environment is just plain awful, it's just not healthy. Pay is good but after awhile, it's just not worth it. I think Danny Choo has the best example (Thanks again, Danny), here's what he wrote...

Now I would like to talk about something I call the "Comfort Zone."The comfort zone is where one is content with their current situation and I'm going to use an ex colleague who I shall name as Sally as an example. Sally had a job doing what she was good at (web design) and had a small team to manage. She had a good salary and good working hours considering that it was Tokyo.

But Sally wanted more from her life than just being content - she wanted to be happy. My personal interpretation is that being happy and being content are two different things. Being content fulfills basic human needs of being able to eat and have shelter. Being happy is going a step further and fulfilling the need to live ones passion.One day, I asked Sally why she didn't start to do something about her situation. She said that she was waiting for somebody to give her an opportunity. When I asked "who", she said "I don't know..."Sally was in the Comfort Zone and going nowhere fast. Her comfort made it difficult for her to take her own initiative to seek other opportunities.

If you are unhappy with your current line of work and presuming that you work for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours and use the reminder of the 8 hours for commutation, hygiene, recreation and nourishment consumption - you are spending 33% of your life doing something that constantly fuels that burning question of "what if" - don't fuel that question anymore - go out and do something!

It could be anything from starting to meet recruiters, taking up a new course or activity, research, meeting people with similar interests and so on. I may make it sound plain and simple but in fact it is. Something leads to something. Nothing leads to nothing.

Money is indeed important in this society we live in and I understand that one may need to do something that one may not exactly like to make ends meet. But, one can also be doing something on the side at the same time (learning, experiencing, meeting) in order to fulfill ones real passion. If you truly believe in yourself, your skills and ability, then you will be successful anyway - meaning that if you are going to ditch a well paid job to take a risk of a lower paying position where you can fulfill your passion, you will eventually make it anyway - because its you.

Taking the leap from safe comfortable steady ground into an unknown void is not something that comes easily. Humans basic instinct is to protect itself and places priority on food and shelter and taking risks could affect these necessities.But life is not just about being comfortable - its about living your passion.You can spend most of your life doing something you dislike to bring in the money which pays the bills which enables you to go back to work another day to bring in the money which pays the bills which enables you to go back to work another day to bring in the money which pays the bills which enables you to go back to work another day to bring in the money which pays the bills...

What Danny said or wrote in his blog is pretty much what I'm going through. I can be contented right now but I'm not happy. Did a lot thinking and decided to step out of my comfort zone and quit the place. Some people say it's crazy to quit without a job during a recession. But I got my family's support and enough savings to tie me over for the next few months. If I don't do it now, when? when the recession is over? I'm not getting any younger.

I got some things planned. Among them is spending more time with my aging family. Am sure you never hear of anyone saying 'I wish I spent more time at the office' when the guy's dying, its always regret bout not spending enough time with family and doing things you wanna do. So I'm gonna be doing some of the things I wanna do, at least for now. ;) Learn new things, reconnect with some old things. It's not going to be easy, things are going to be rough especially when it comes to my aging family, I know that and they know it too. I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm excited but I think i'm gonna be happy.