I’m writing business plans to flesh out ideas as a low-risk way of asking myself, is this really something I want to commit to for the next few years? I’m experimenting by putting ideas out into the world ― through these blog posts, Twitter and other safe online spaces like Kern.al - and seeing what resonates. By experimenting, you’ll make far more progress than you would if you sat still. You’ll learn what you enjoy and what you want to stay away from, what you’re good at and where you can beef up your skills. But with each little experiment, you’ll learn something about yourself. Some of these steps will feel like they lead nowhere. So what experiments can you run for yourself? How can you take action in little ways? What can you start or dabble in? Can you take a class? Talk to someone in a field you want to learn about? Push yourself to try something new? In fact, if all your experiments work, you’re probably doing something wrong. You can’t really fail with an experiment, because if it doesn’t work, you just put it aside and move to the next one. The word “experiment” takes the pressure off it’s no big deal if you try something new and you don’t enjoy it or it doesn’t gain any traction. I think of these steps as experiments because we don’t know which ones will work. How did trying that new thing make you feel? Did you see any promising signs? Did you learn something about yourself? It’s more effective to take little steps in lots of different directions and observe the results. ExperimentĪ common tendency, when we don’t know what we want, is to sit still, to wait for inspiration to strike and then take a step toward it.īut inspiration isn’t likely to strike when we’re sitting still. In other words, here’s what to do when you don’t yet know what you want. So here’s how I’m thinking about this looking-up phase of my career. Still, even phases of exploration benefit from structure. I was wishing away what I call a “ looking-up phase ” of my career - a creative, fun time in contrast to my seasons of head-down execution. Once I came around to this idea, I realized that by focusing solely on the outcome, I was missing the best part. This isn’t a season of uncertainty it’s a season of exploration. My success is based on exploring well, not on choosing a next step. Using this reframe, my job isn’t to grow something new, it’s to explore what that might be. “It’s your commitment to the process that will determine your progress ,” he writes. He says goals are useless without systems. This idea echoes a theme in James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. When you don’t know what you want, you might actually move faster by focusing on the process of exploration, rather than on the decision itself. But putting my energy into the process instead makes my actions toward that outcome more thoughtful - and more effective. This reframe feels counterintuitive in some ways, because I’m used to making progress by focusing on the outcome. The focus, she helped me realize, shouldn’t be on the decision about what to do next. Then my business coach helped me reframe how I think about this season. For months, I felt awkward and uncomfortable not knowing what’s next. I’m eager to start something new, and this pandemic year has forced me to move more slowly than I’d like. My husband and I have had some financial success with our businesses, which takes pressure off in terms of choosing what’s next and makes the in-between space easierīut there’s still so much more I want to build and experience and learn. And we have managed to stay healthy during a pandemic.Ĭareer-wise, I’m content with working for myself again. A lot of things I’ve worked toward for years have come to be: I have a wonderful husband, two healthy kids, a lovely home, and hiking on our doorstep. I turned 40 last month, which prompted me to reflect on where I’m at in life. If you’re struggling to find clarity because you don’t know what you want, I hope this strategy will help you move forward. I think that optimism stems from how I’m approaching this season of uncertainty, how I’m thinking about this phase of my career and what I’m doing to make it meaningful. At times in my life, uncertainty, and not knowing what I wanted next, made me feel lost. This uncertainty can feel uncomfortable, even scary. I vaguely know what I want - to grow another company - but I don’t know yet exactly what that looks like. Here I am as a grown adult, and I still have moments - or, let’s be honest, months - when I don’t know what I want. If only that feeling was unique to childhood, I thought. I gave him an empathetic hug… and chuckled a little inside. “Do you want to watch a show?” asked the hygenist. He was crying, and the hygienist and I were trying to coax him back to his happy self. Two years ago, I was at the dentist’s office with my four-year-old son.
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