Allow Yourself to Wander

When’s the last time you let yourself wander?

Indulge me for a second. So much of the moments that have led us to this part of our career were carefully planned. We did well in grade school. Got into a “good” college and did the “right” internships. Attended networking events to make the “most impactful” connections. Aced interviews but only accepted offers that aligned with our 5-year plan. You see, it’s all calculated. Up until this point, there’s been very little variability.

But once the pandemic hit, we began to experience a shift. Careers began to look a bit different. Jobs were lost. And others adjusted to the drastic change in business. We were pretty much left in a state of figuring out how to respond to all the changes around us.

For some, that meant embarking on a new career - whether intentional or forced. For others, the result was continuing down the path you were on and navigating the adjustment to the corporate “new normal”.

But for a tiny group of us, we allowed ourselves to wander. Almost like walking around aimlessly, waiting to see where our career may lead us to next. There aren’t any concrete plans to get us from Point A to Point B. We take each moment day by day, saying yes to opportunities we may not have considered in the past. And sometimes, we wander down the wrong path but have found our footing to wander down a different path towards something that sticks - another career path we admire.

It’s a privilege to take time to wander through the journey of undergoing a career pivot. It’s almost unimaginable if your personal priorities and responsibilities wouldn’t dare allow you to test the waters and see what else is out there - especially if it means leaving a stable career.

But if your life can afford you the opportunity to wander, I couldn’t recommend giving it a try more enough! It can be scary because you have to get comfortable with encountering the unknown. Saying ‘yes’ to opportunities you typically wouldn’t pursue has it’s own set of anxieties. What if you fail? What if you hate it? But on the contrary, isn’t it exciting to consider the possibility of “What if it all works out?” Or “What if you love it?”.

As someone still getting used to the idea of wandering in my current season of career change, I’m encouraging myself to lean more towards the possibility of it all working out. It’s definitely a total shift in mindset but it’s helped change my perspective towards adapting to change. While not every step in my journey has been rainbows, I carry a lot of those moments with me today as life experience that I can lean on to help others who may find themselves in a similar position.

So far, I’ve learned a lot about myself - as cliche as that may sound. But it’s true. Trying out new things in your career can really shine a light on characteristics about yourself that you never knew existed. I’ve gained strong opinions on what it means to be an effective people manager. I have soap box worthy thoughts to spew on what it means to lead DEI programs in corporate America. And I have a tenacious point of view on what it takes to be an impactful individual contributor. There’s some things I wish I had come to realize early in my career - could’ve saved me some time in this journey!

In any case, I hope that you can eventually find yourself in a place to wander in your career. Despite the security a well thought out and defined career plan can have, it’s sometimes nice to take a step on the wild side and let life happen.

You never know what you might achieve!