Where Do You Want to Be?

First a quote:?“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” —J.P. Morgan?

In 2001, I had a great job with a rapidly expanding company which was already prominently featured in the top 50 of the Fortune 500 list. I had an impressive title, nice office, stock options, the comfort of a generous salary, and I enjoyed working with a great team of people.

From an outsider’s perspective, I’m sure I appeared to be in an enviable position.

On the inside, I felt unsatisfied and unfulfilled, at least from a career perspective. I desired something different… something both a bit scary and also quite risky.

With a family including two young children to feed, clothe, and house, I wanted to leave the security of a corporate job with benefits and a steady paycheck.? I felt driven to pursue my passions. On August 15, 2001, I did just that. I quit my job and set sail into uncharted waters.

“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.”????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ??????????????– Tony Robbins

While I have no idea where fate might have taken our family had Becky and I made different decisions, I can tell you that, in hindsight, we have no regrets.

It wasn’t always easy and there were certainly hard challenges to overcome… 9/11, the 2008/2009 recession, and 2020/Covid-19 were very difficult years to be self-employed in my industry. (As a sidenote, I have never liked being described as a “non-essential worker.”)

On the upside, I love my chosen career path. I often tell people, “I haven’t worked in more than 20 years because I enjoy it so much.” I absolutely love the vocation I have been privileged to do all these years. In fact, it has made my pending retirement a far more difficult challenge than one might assume.

Over more recent years, we have also watched as both of our adult children have grappled with similar career choices. Our entrepreneurial daughter launched her own business, and our son just recently made a decision eerily similar to the one I made 23 years ago. He also left a lucrative job and career to follow his heart’s passion.

Having waked in similar shoes, I can relate to the full basket of emotions they will likely experience over the months and years ahead. Significant change almost always carries with it an entire range of emotions, both expected and unexpected, some negative and many positive.

We applaud both of our children for having the courage to pursue their dreams, wherever those dreams might take them.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

Now a hard “left-hand turn” in topics.

Our son’s recent decision triggered a fair amount of self-reflection on my part.

One of my many random thoughts was about some of the experiential teambuilding activities I have run over the years including one called Orienteering.

Orienteering is an activity/sport in which teams use an accurate, detailed map and compass to find various points placed across the landscape, often on a mountainside or wilderness area. These locations, or targets, often have varying point values based upon the degree of difficulty in finding or obtaining them. Teams need to design a winning strategy for collecting the most points, then execute while utilizing that strategy.

Like most experiential learning events, the debrief of the activity can focus on a myriad of learning possibilities.

For today’s missive, my focus is on five possible learning points typical in most orienteering events. These points can be considered, and applied, over an entire range of possible scenarios including:

• making a major career decision (like the one I made 23 years ago, and our son made recently).
• taking on a significant project or major change initiative.
• implementing a strategy in some aspect of your department, company, work, career, or life.

Those five learning points include:

• Identifying the “You are here” spot of your career, project, or strategy – This step should include an assessment of your current situation. What are your strengths and weaknesses related to the anticipated journey ahead? If you don’t know “where you are” on the map or field of play, it is almost impossible to map out your next move, let alone identify your ultimate destination.
• Assess the terrain around you, including your most likely path forward – It is important to assess the terrain ahead, to identify the resources required, as well as barriers and roadblocks you’re likely to encounter. It is always wise to expect the unexpected and to identify alternative worst and best-case scenarios. If possible, talk to other explorers who have proceeded you over the same terrain. Seek to learn from the experience of others.

• Anticipate detours – The path forward will most certainly include detours and unexpected delays. Anticipating detours will help you more easily overcome setbacks and disappointments. Again, discipline yourself to run alternate scenarios at various checkpoints along the path. Anticipating unexpected detours will help you be better prepared and more aware of a variety of options at your disposal.
• Celebrate forward progress – Schedule time for reflection and a “look back” on the journey to date; including your forward progress and lessons learned at frequent intervals along the path.? The process of taking inventory along the way will give you motivation to climb the hills yet to be crossed on the path ahead.
• Continue to refine your vision of the anticipated destination – It is impossible to see what the future will look like from our current “You are Here” vantage point with 100% accuracy.? However, our experience along life’s path also gives us more data and more insights to consider. Listening and learning along the way helps provide us with more clarity about what we would like to see in the future. If we’re paying attention, we gain wisdom from our past that will aid us in the future.

The next chapters in our children’s careers don’t have to be “perfect” because the experiences in those next chapters, whatever they are, will provide them with more clarity for the journey ahead.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Where are you on your career map? Where do you want to be someday?

If you’re contemplating a change in your future, don’t wait for an absolutely perfect time frame… as it may never come. Now just might be the perfect time to explore your dreams.

I wish you all the best wherever your path may lead.

How will you live, love, or lead, differently, or better, this week?

Sincerely,

Bryan Yager

“Expanding Your Capacity for Success”

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Bonus Quotes:

• “The start is what stops most people.” – Don Shula
• “If you keep going where you're going, you'll end up where you’re headed.” - Chinese Proverb.
• “If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
• “Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.” – Erol Ozan
• “It is not the destination where you end up but the mishaps and memories you create along the way!” – Penelope Riley
• “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs
• “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” – Babs Hoffman
• “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over, and over, and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” –? Michael Jordan