In this world there are all kind of people. But in context of this post I am interested in only two type of people. On one side there are people who are not afraid of change and embrace the change in life. On the other side there are human beings who are less open to change.

Change can be personal or professional. Personal change could be falling in love, getting married, having kids, growing old and so on. Each of the above mentioned changes come at certain points in everyone's life, I acknowledge them as peaks. Often personal changes are written on the wall i.e., social indicators. Personal changes can be very rewarding and most of them are very fulfilling. Having said that changing your Android for an iPhone is not change. A personal change is something more significant which adds a new chapter in your life.

Avoid change when local maxima?

In professional context, a change can be switching job, shifting career focus, leaping into the unknown territories. Unlike personal life, there are no social indicators and no milestones. Then how to make a call in professional life that it is time to change? Well this can be quite simple. Ask yourself,

  1. Am I feeling too stable?
  2. Can I break-out of my comfort zone?
  3. Am I close to peak?

If answer is yes, no, yes then it's time to go. If you ask any successful sports person about their retirement plans, every one wants to retire at his or her peak. Well we can't retire, but at least we can make appropriate changes when on the peak. Don't get caught in your own success for rest of your life. This is one of the biggest mistakes people always make. As calculus suggests, a random restart is one way to recover (Image credits).

Mid this year, I made a big change. Moved to a major city, switched the job, minor change in my area of work and a fancy new job title. I will be lying if I say I was not nervous due to this change after all this was a big move. I was quite stable and comfortable in my last job. That said, I am quite happy that I made this call. Apart from professional reasons this particular decision was driven by my personal circumstances. It's too early to say if this decision was professionally right or wrong but hey no regrets.