Most of us would agree that setting clear goals is useful. After all, goals provide our lives with intention and focus. However, when it comes to the vision you have for your career, sometimes rigidly and relentlessly chasing a specific goal can also be limiting when the best path forward may be one you never imagined at the start.
When I thought about leaving my stable corporate marketing job behind to launch my career consultancy, I got different pieces of advice about how much planning I should do before leaping. The vast majority of my peers, many of whom had more of a business background, recommended I have some clear goals and a solid business plan in place, at least pinpointing potential income streams, client outreach, and growth plans.
Only a handful told me I should just start somewhere without needing to first have a clear plan in place, the approach I now tend to recommend to most of my clients navigating career pivots.
Things Rarely Go According To Plan
As someone who’s a planner by nature, and as someone who worked for many years in the corporate world where you generally need a buttoned-up plan in place before getting approval to proceed with any idea, having clear plans and goals made intuitive sense to me.
So while I didn’t end up writing out a full business plan per se, I did pore over plenty of spreadsheets, projected income streams, and mapped out service offerings – all in the name of having clear tactics and goals in place before making the leap.
By the time I was ready to turn my side gig of career consultancy into my full-time job, I had a specific vision of how I wanted my business to look. However, once I got my business off the ground, I quickly realized my plans didn’t align with reality.
Initial Ideas Are Often Enticing
While working toward a goal can feel productive, fixating on one can be time-consuming and costly. When I first started my business, plenty of ideas came and went. For example, I saw an opportunity and need to create a community to help people navigate career change, so I felt hosting networking events in London focused on providing information and fostering connections could assist people navigating career changes.
I invested a lot of time into trying to make this idea a reality. I found a convenient venue in central London, created invitation cards, advertised the event on my rudimentary website, told my network about the event, set up a LinkedIn group, organized a panel of featured speakers, and even arranged catering.
Vision Alone Is Not Enough
Creating this event became my singular focus during the initial months of my work. Unfortunately, the results were tepid in spite of my desire to create a set of vibrant events to connect like-minded professionals while also building my own visibility in the career change space. It turns out that my skills were rather misaligned with those required to successfully host an event.
After a ton of work, only about 20 people showed up to my first event, significantly fewer than I envisioned. When I looked out into the small audience awkwardly sat in the middle of what felt like a very large, empty room, I realized the event had flopped.
Working toward a singular goal can feel productive when in reality, it may be leading you astray.
Pivot Quickly To Cut Your Losses
At any given moment, you have a choice about whether to continue pursuing a goal. You can stubbornly cling to your original vision even when things flop, or you can be open to letting it go. Moving on doesn’t have to be viewed as a failure but rather an opportunity to adjust course. Allowing yourself to “fail” quickly can open up space to explore other avenues.
I never hosted another event after that evening. However, I didn’t let go of the community idea. I just tried to build it in other ways through content creation and public speaking at events others organized, which has allowed me to reach more people than I would have had I continued to plow forward with hosting those independent events.
Deviating From Plans Drives Expansion
It’s okay – and often necessary – to let go of your original plans and ideas. Maybe changing directions isn’t something you had originally planned to do. Or you feel like the timing to switch paths isn’t optimal. Or you wanted to first fulfill some sort of obligation before pursuing something else. Or you had just one more thing you wanted to cross off your to-do list before you moved on.
The timing of any change needs to work for you. However, when presented with a new opportunity that truly excites you, one that you feel holds much more promise and potential, you owe it to yourself to go after it, even if it means abandoning something you had worked hard on.
Only You Can Choose To Move On
I still have that LinkedIn group, which has a whopping five members. It’s a nice reminder that an initial idea gone awry can also plant the seed of alternative, more promising ideas worth pursuing.
Having any idea flop isn’t pleasant. No one likes to experience things not going according to plan. However, giving yourself the freedom to quickly pivot away from something allows you to focus your energies on pursuits that can be a better fit for you and ultimately lead to greater fulfillment and impact.
So if you notice yourself feeling like you’re following a career path just because it aligns with your original plans, consider being open to letting it go. Deviating from your original plans may feel unsettling at first, but better opportunities can emerge if you allow them to.