What If You’re Just Figuring It Out as You Go?
This morning, I listened to a podcast in which well-known people are interviewed about their younger years, the years before their breakthrough. The guest, now a famous chef, was asked about his twenty-year plan, which he had already created at the age of sixteen. He worked toward a goal he had set in his teenage years, a goal that is now quite close to becoming reality.
And then I thought: a twenty-year plan? As a teenager? I remember that I also had a plan at that age. Well, a plan... it was more a direction I had laid out for myself. The computer science lessons I was taking sparked my interest. It was by far my favorite subject, and it naturally followed that I made a plan to study computer science and eventually work somewhere as a software developer. Compared to some of my fellow students at the time, that was already a relatively well-thought-out plan. So I felt I was on the right track.
After working as a developer for about eight to ten years, the plan shifted slightly: instead of actively developing software, I now teach new developers to learn how to program, both at a high school and at a university of applied sciences. Not because that was part of my twenty-year plan, but because at some point I was done with the (sometimes) monotonous work of a developer and was looking for a new challenge within the same field.
An interview like the one in that podcast episode really gets me thinking. Is having such a long-term plan, a clear goal on the horizon, a good idea to have? Is it okay that I’ve shaped my career the way I have so far: going with the flow and choosing whatever feels most appealing at that moment? That, too, is a kind of goal on the horizon, but one more vaguely sketched in pencil than brightly shining like a star in the sky. Will you still move forward enough if you follow seemingly random trains of thought that arise in the moment?
I don’t know. I have no idea. In the end, I’m just figuring things out as I go, like we all are. My path doesn’t have to be laid out the same way as someone else’s. At most, I can observe from the passenger seat and pick up the pieces that spark my enthusiasm.
Just a few random thoughts and a word dump on digital paper, on a Tuesday morning. Enjoy your day!