The traditional school system teaches us to choose one particular career to specialise in for the rest of our lives…and we’re expected to choose before we turn 18 years old.
This never really worked for me.
I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life at 18, and at 30 I still don’t!
I found myself falling into certain university degrees because that’s what you were “supposed” to do, and that’s what people told me I was good at…
Looking back, I sometimes wish I had been presented an alternative option.
What if, like me, you’re someone who doesn’t know what you want to do? Should you rack up years worth of university debt when you know you probably won’t stick with it anyway?
Or what if you’re like many other people who go down one particular career path, only to find themselves years down the track, feeling unfulfilled, lost, and stuck in a job they don’t like?
With so many potential paths and possibilities in today’s world, choosing a path is no longer as black and white as it once was.
Our first plan doesn’t always work out, and that’s ok.
When we have a fundamental belief that there is only one path for us, we tend to put a lot of pressure on that one thing to work, and if it doesn’t we feel like a failure.
On the other hand, when we believe there are multiple paths to happiness and fulfilment in our lives, we feel less like a failure when one path doesn’t work out. There’s less pressure on that single path, because if it doesn’t work it’s not the end of our happiness, it’s simply the beginning of a new path.
I love this idea.
A while ago I came across a method of life design that is based on this idea that there are multiple potential paths of fulfilment for each of us. It’s called the Odyssey Plan.
What is the Odyssey Plan?
The Odyssey Plan was created by professors at the Stanford Life Design Lab to help students think about and “design” their futures (both personal and professional) more effectively.
It was initially created with people aged 20-35 in mind, those in the stage of life where we’re discovering who we are and what we want to do. However, it can be used by anyone at any stage of life, particularly when going through a period of change or in order to find a more fulfilling life path.
It’s recommended that you would revisit your Odyssey Plan every 2-3 years.
There’s no such thing as being “too old” to find a path that will give you purpose. It’s highly likely our purpose will change over the course of our lives, and the Odyssey Plan gives us a tangible tool to work with.
How to create an Odyssey Plan
The Odyssey Plan involves brainstorming ideas and coming up with 3 different potential life paths. Brainstorm what your life would look like, both personally and professionally, in these 3 different scenarios:
- What would your life look like if you continued to do the thing you are already doing, or you continued down the path you’re on right now?
- What if plan #1 disappeared? What would you do if your life look like if you couldn’t do what you were currently doing?
- What would your life look like if you didn’t care about money or what other people thought about you?
The idea isn’t necessarily to pick one plan right now, but the planning process helps you realise what’s important to you, and what you might do if you weren’t confined by your idea of what’s “realistic” for you.
When looking at the 3 plans you come up with, consider how each of them aligns with your personal core values. (If you haven’t already identified your core values, now might be a great time to do that too!)
How to decide which path is right for you
When it comes to moving forward and deciding which path is right for you to pursue, there are 3 steps to follow:
- Get curious:
Rather than focusing on what you think you should do, or the path you’re already on, get curious about what you enjoy and what might be possible for you in the future. Remember, nothing is set in stone and you can always change paths later if it doesn’t work out! - Talk to people:
The idea here is to talk to people who are already doing the things you think you might like to do. Ask them questions and learn about the realities of the path. The more you learn about what others are doing, the more information you’ll have to decide if something is right for you. - Try stuff:
In order to find out if something’s right for you, you’ve gotta try it out! We will never know what we really think of something until we actually do the thing.
Some things seem like a great idea, then we try them and realise we don’t really enjoy it. The more you can test things and experiment, the better chance you’ll have at finding what you truly want to do with your time.
If you want to go deeper into the Odyssey Plan process, I recommend checking out the book “Designing Your Life” by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
I know for me there are many potential paths I see for myself. I find it hard to confine myself to just one (and lucky, it turns out I don’t have to!)
The Odyssey Plan helped me realise I can think bigger and discover a number of different paths that might lead to a happy and fulfilled life.
That takes the pressure off and allows me the space to experiment with different ideas, knowing I have other plans I can try if things don’t work out.
Life is a continuous experiment, and we are continuously changing as people as we go through life. It’s normal that the path we carved out for ourselves at 18 years old might need to change at some point.
Expect this, and even better, plan for it.
