#19: Switching Careers is as Scary as Jumping Off a Ledge to Go Ziplining
A curious soul with a passion for learning and growth. Gin and wine lover. Crazy about all things food and travel. This series of posts between June-August will dive deeper into my personality.
It’s OK to feel lost. It’s OK to not know what you want to do next.
We put too much pressure on ourselves to ALWAYS know what we’re going to be doing a few years from now.
The truth is I never had a five-year plan. It was a question that used to trip me up in interviews. Back then—nearly 12 years ago—I would try and come up with an acceptable answer to this question, “Where do you see yourself five years from now?”
Who knows, right? The world could end. We could be stuck indoors forever thanks to a deadly pandemic. The job you’re so passionate about today could be gone tomorrow.
I still don’t have any five-year plans. I never had a plan for life when I switched careers from software engineering to journalism.
It was one of the scariest decisions I had made in my life. The decision could have gone either way. I could have failed miserably, or I could have found success.
The best part? I chose to study journalism in an unfamiliar media environment in the U.S., away from home, in a new country—all the while knowing zilch about the field.
This 2018 ziplining experience in Dubai reminds me of the similarities. You’re standing on a ledge 550 feet above the ground, the wind blowing in your hair, your heart outside of your chest, the adrenaline in your body. And you’re waiting to take the plunge. After I made it to the other end of the Dubai Marina, I knew I had traversed the longest urban zipline in the world. The longest minute of my life now behind me.
I had lived to tell the tale.
Taking a calculated risk to make my career pivot paid off. Doubts engulfed me at every step. There were moments when I felt like giving it all up and going back to software engineering. But I stuck it out.
I worked hard. I took risks. I pushed the boundaries of my comfort zone without breaking them. Once I knew this was a field I had chosen to study, I made the most of it. I absorbed as much as I could. The plan? To successfully graduate at the end of two years and get my Master’s degree.
I may not have five-year plans. This is the only plan I have:
To keep growing and exploring
To not give up easily when the going gets tough
To be open to the infinite possibilities
To seek knowledge actively wherever I can
To admit I don’t know everything
To adapt and pivot while keeping my passion for learning alive
I know most of us feel like we need to have a plan for our lives. I’ll say this again. It’s OK if you don’t. Sometimes the joy is in the process. Figuring stuff out can be your plan. Trying a new skill could be your thing.
Plans can crumble. Go haywire.
Are we staying the course even when a plan isn’t working out the way we expected it to? Are we experimenting with our plan? Are we keeping ourselves open to alternatives?
Remember, our plans aren't important.
It’s what we make of every moment in our life that counts. It’s what we do with a plan gone wrong that makes all the difference. If you don’t have a plan, the world is your oyster.
About the Shades of My Self series:
In June, I decided to start a series of articles that would uncover shades of my personality. If you haven’t read my post on cultivating friendships, you can read it here. You can also learn more about the value of a multidisciplinary mindset here.
See you next week!
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Cheers,
Kritika
This is so true and yet I'm conflicted.
I am remembering what people say to me, "without a plan, how will you know where to begin, what to do, who to approach?" basically the 4 Ws and 1 H of unplanned lifestyles.
What are goals, targets, if not culminations of plans? Is it good to NOT have one or are we saying let's not have super long term ones?