You're Fired

"Really? Are you joking? I thought I was really doing well here. It wasn't my fault. Don't you remember my great quarter last year? How can there be budget cuts? My family really needs me to keep this job. Is there anything I can do to change your mind?"

The myriad of possible first instinct responses to "You're fired" might go along these lines .. but what about:

"Wow. This job was the only thing anchoring me down. I can do anything I want now!"

For some reason I found myself pondering this situation today as I began to look to self evaluating myself at my job in preparation for a review. (Don't read into this too much, I'm pretty happy at my job - I work for a pretty cool company, but even that could not keep me from day dreaming a bit.) Playing the mental exercise through, I asked myself, "What would I do if I was fired tomorrow?"

What would you do?

What would you do if you had nothing anchoring you down to where you live and what you do? Imagine you live in a city where you have no family, no belongings that can't be packed up and shipped anywhere, and no commitments or reasons to stay? What if you could pick up and go anywhere and do anything? Would you? Or do you prefer the status quo and the comfort of knowing your city blocks, worn sidewalks, and familiar faces. Status quo isn't necessarily bad - but what if there was nothing stopping you from moving to any city in the world? There are jobs to be found almost anywhere so imagine that money is no worry. You'll find work - maybe not what you do today, but something to sustain you. Could you, or would you, be willing to take that step into the unknown? Would you find it scary or invigorating?

I think I'm not alone in imagining what it would be like to just drop everything and walk away from this life to start another. There is no reason why I must stay in the software profession. What would I do? I think I would go back to college and get a teaching certificate and a job teaching 6th graders or simply join Teach For America.

So, how about you, what would you do?