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254,933 viewsJan 13, 2013, 06:15am

How To Plan Your Life, When You Can't Plan Your Life

Action Trumps Everything

Paul B. Brown Contributor

Action Trumps Everything

Contributor Group

I write on the best way to prepare for the future -- by creating it.

Q: What’s a person to do to survive, let alone thrive in this environment?

The mere fact that we have to ask that question is unsettling, scary and frustrating, because it is
something we never anticipated we’d have to answer when we finished school.
Most of us prepared hard for the future we expected, and yet when it comes to our work life today
things aren’t working out as we had planned. That’s true if you have been laid off; are a recent college
graduate who is under-employed; a manager who feels that he is stuck in his current position, or a
member of the C-Suite who has the very real (and probably justified feeling) that her company (and
perhaps her entire field) may implode around her.

This is not how we were told it was going to be.

Growing up we were led to believe that the future was predictable enough and if we studied hard we
could obtain the work we wanted in an environment we understood, and we would live happy and
successful lives.

It hasn’t exactly worked out that way (even for those of us who are happy.)

Our careers today rarely move in a straight line and on top of that we are worrying that the line is going
to be erased all together.

Why the disconnect between what we thought would happen, and what is actually going on? We think
the answer to that is pretty simple. The way we were taught to think and act works well when the future
is predictable, but not so much in the world as it is now.

You know the steps for dealing with a predictable universe:

1. You (or your parents, teachers, or bosses) forecast how the future will be and how you can have a
successful life in it.

2. You construct a number of plans for achieving that life, picking the optimal one, i.e. the one that will
get you there in the shortest time, or with the least amount of effort or will produce the most pleasant
journey.
3. You assemble the resources (education, money, etc.) necessary to achieve your plan.

4. And then you go out and implement it.

We have become so indoctrinated with this way of thinking by our education (with the way they taught
us to think) and our organizations (with the way they go about solving problems) that it is more or less
the only way we approach anything.

But what is very smart approach to a knowable or predictable future is not smart at all when things can’t
be predicted—like now. And that fact is at the heart of the frustrations—and fear—most of us feel.
Things simply aren’t as predictable as they once were when it comes to plotting out a superior (and
satisfying) career.

It’s pretty scary when you can’t plan and control your way to security, let alone the job you want.

In a world where you can no longer plan your way to success, what is the best way to achieve lifelong
security and accomplish the things you really care about?

Instead of picturing/thinking about what the perfect job or career would be and working backwards
from there, begin with a direction, based on a real desire, in which you think you want to go. Then
complement that with a strategy to discover and create opportunities consistent with your desire.

In other words, you don’t search for the perfect job, you create it—either within an existing organization
or on your own.

Why the radically different approach? That’s easy to explain.

In an uncertain world you simply cannot come close to imagining what a perfect job might be. It’s
unknowable, especially when you are trying to predict five or ten years out. The world can change
radically in that span of time. But what is 100% known is what's valuable and important to you. Who are
you? What matters to you? Is it working in a specific industry? Managing people or not? Traveling
extensively and moving every few years as part of your career in order to gain new perspectives and
responsibilities or putting down roots? The answers to these questions will point you in productive
directions.

Having considered that, what are your means at hand, your talents and skills, who you know, what you
know? And how do you get started on concrete actions that are consistent with these desires? Some of
those may take the form of looking for a job, but others might simultaneously entail starting something
of your own. In either case, as you act, different opportunities will present themselves.

So, the process from planning your future when you can’t really plan looks like this:

1. Determine your desire

2. Take a small step toward it

3. Learn from taking that that step

4. Take another step

5. Learn from that one

You follow this Act, Learn, Build Repeat model until you have a job, your own business, or have achieved
your goal. It's not career planning. It's acting your way into a future you want.

How do we know this approach will work? Because it already has.

You never want to reinvent the wheel, so when we set off to create our last book (Just Start: Take Action.
Embrace Uncertainty. Create the Future) which was about the best ways to navigate the unknown, we
went looking for people who had done it successfully. And we found one group that was better at it than
anyone else: Serial entrepreneurs, people who have started two or more businesses successfully. There
is nothing more uncertain than starting a business and these people had done it at least twice with
stellar results.

They used the Act Learn Build Repeat model to start their companies and we proved in Just Start that
their approach to navigating successfully through the unknown would work for everyone everywhere,
not just entrepreneurs who want to start their own company.

###

Paul B. Brown is the co-author (along with Leonard A. Schlesinger and Charles F. Kiefer) of Just Start:
Take Action; Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future recently published by Harvard Business Review
Press.

Please note the Action Trumps Everything blog now appears every Sunday and Wednesday.

Click on the "follow" link on the top of this post to receive every Action Trumps Everything blog the
moment it goes live

I am a best-selling author, and an extremely proud Forbes alum. A former writer and editor at Business
Week, Inc. and Financial World, in addition to my six years at Forbes, I've written, co-written and
“ghosted” numerous best-sellers including Customers for Life (with Carl ... MORE

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