What I'm doing with my life "After Quitting My Job"

No, I haven’t figured it out yet, and that wasn’t the plan either!

But when I write this blog straight from my heart, sitting in the lap of mother nature, watching the sun silently shy away behind the layered Himalayas, drinking the freshest chamomile tea from the organic farms of this pure land, I know I’m loving my life much more than I did when I lived in the cities.

I wanted to gift myself a backpacking trip to southeast Asia for taking a bold step of resigning without any plan in my mind. I had planned not to plan anything till I come back from the trip and to give myself complete break from work after the trip to figure out my life after quitting the corporate job. The number of months depended on the part of my savings I kept aside for the break. The sooner I exhaust the amount, the sooner I need to start earning.

After quitting, I visited home for a couple of weeks. I planned my travel dates there and booked my flights. I spent 6 weeks backpacking in 3 countries viz. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The only thing I had booked was my flights to Ho Chi Minh City and return from Phnom Penh. I like this pure backpacking style where I have no plans. I wouldn’t know where i’m spending the day or night. If I like a place, I stay there longer, I plan my next move as per my mood. I don’t like being restricted to a plan on my mind.

On my return journey at the layover at Kuala Lumpur airport, I got connected to check my emails and there was an email from an adventure travel company offering me to join their team as a co-founder. I spoke to the team and they sounded promising about the ideas they wanted to implement to make a change in the way the adventure tourism exists in India currently. I had long conversations with them and agreed to join the team in Gurgaon. I had my return flight from Phnom Penh to Delhi. I met the team in Gurgaon and by then they had planned to strategically set up the operations out of Bir in Himachal Pradesh. I readily agreed to move to Bir, as a first step to living in the mountains. I went to Mumbai, packed my luggage and stuffed as much as I could in my car and donated the rest. I dropped some stuff at my parents house on the way and drove to Bir.

I lived in Bir for 3 months, trying to understand the team and hopefully implement the ideas we had been discussing about all this while. Unfortunately, due to difference in approach within the team, the work didn’t go in the direction I was hopeful about and I wasn’t ready to start working in a direction where I wasn’t interested in. I hadn’t quit my job for this!

Meanwhile my trekker friends planned a high-altitude trek to Kalindi Khal. This is the same team I had trekked with last year to one of the most difficult treks of Garhwal Himalayas - Auden’s Col trek. I wasn’t physically and financially ready for the trek. But my friends wouldn’t just buy these reasons. They helped me getting my trek sponsored and left the fitness part to me. 

Legend has it that I come back from every trek with some strong decision, this time I planned to not continue with the startup and take more chances in life, all alone. I came back, talked to the team and moved out of Bir.

I then planned a backpacking and trekking trip to Spiti which was long-waited in my list. I spent around 1.5 months living in different villages in Spiti.

On my way back from Spiti, I spent a week exploring Kinnaur. Kinnaur was unexpectedly very beautiful! I then took a break from mountains to go back to cities for personal work.

I’m now back in the mountains, this time in Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh.
​I have had a long history with the Himalayas. I want a lifestyle, like everyone does. But my choice of lifestyle is - breath clean air, eat fresh organic food, drink pure water and live healthy life. I’m trying to live in different parts of the Himalayas, experience the rough terrains and the tough life along with the lifestyle priorities i’ve chosen for myself. Once I’m sure about this lifestyle, I would want to choose my ways of earning around it.

My whole idea of quitting my job without any plan was to give a break to the worries of future and explore myself and places to slowly let my life unfold. I don't believe in planning for solutions, I rather enjoy uncovering them - something that travel taught me to believe in!

It's definitely not easy to keep away from the thoughts of earning, I do keep exploring and evaluating my options on my way.
I haven’t figured it out yet, and that was never the idea either.
The journey is on and completely worth it!


​Read my other posts on "QUITTING MY JOB" series:

How Trekking changed my attitude towards life

How Scuba Diving in Andaman encouraged me to quit my job