Goals

• Critically and objectively assess the path you are on right now
• Come up with bold and exciting alternatives. You don' have to follow through, but you'll want to
• Create one final vision for your future that is both realistic and exciting

Introduction

What's the point of planing your life? There are so many parts you can never account for. Random chances, sudden illnesses, and crises (maybe a pandemic or two for good measure), relationships developing in unforeseen ways. Isn't life about responding to change, and making the best of it? To a certain degree, yes. A life well-lived isn't one that you sketched out when you were in Kindergarten and then followed through to a T. A completely reactionary approach, where you simply base decisions on what's right in front of you is also not the answer. Have a plan that's flexible enough to be adapted (or completely overhauled if appropriate) but still enticing enough to push you through any rough patches that you will encounter. By having a concrete plan, you allow the world to step in and support you. You'll still need to course-correct along the way, but without some goal or vision, you'll meander and end up somewhere you never actually wanted to go. Like the last destination in a pub crawl. It sounded like a fun idea at first, but the reality is much less glamorous...

The concept of an odyssey plan is nothing new. It is based on "Designing your Life" by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (visit https://designingyour.life for more information). The main idea is to apply the core principles of "design thinking" to ideating a better life for yourself. Sounds fancy-schmancy (I'm not a big fan of buzzwords as you might have noticed), so I'm going to summarize it very plainly as: think, talk, try. Especially the part where you try stuff in the real world and test your assumptions is crucial. So let's get to it and jump right in.

Step 1: What if I follow plan A?

"But I don't even have a plan A!" you might say. Think of plan A as the most likely option. The path of least resistance. The default. It's what would happen if you stopped making decisions today, and did whatever would be considered the "rational" thing to do based on where you are right now. And for most people that have a plan A, that's what it boils down to. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog, as you would already be busy turning your bold, passionate, and courageous plans into reality. But looks like you don't (dissing your readers, way to go Stefan...).

Let's go back a few years, and look at my own plan A as an example:

I was set on putting my bachelor's and (almost completed) master's degree to good use and work in biotech. It's just what made sense.

Before you sketch out your own plan A, think of some questions you would like to have answers to. For example:

• How long until I'm done with my education?
• Is it feasible to start a family in 3 years?
• How many bucket list items will I be able to cram into the next 5 years?

Curiosity is key. Explore your future rather than focusing on the obvious, such as your career. How will the different areas of your life interact with each other? These areas can include:

• Health/Body
• Mental/Emotional
• Partner/Love
• Family
• Friends
• Mission
• Experiences
• Finances
• Learning

Step 2: How about plan B? Or C? Maybe Z?

Let's pretend the main focus of Plan A wasn't an option. The company you wanted to work for burned down. Oh, and every other company in the same sector did as well, so just choosing a slightly different path doesn't count.

Plan B is about forgetting every pre-conceived notion of how your life should look like (according to you or the people around you), and thinking about what it could look like. What if you quit your job today, traveled across the globe, and worked as a bartender? What if you picked up a passion from your childhood, and tried to make a living based on this? What if you broke up, got engaged, started a family?

You can also try the route of abstraction. Forget about your ego, your thoughts, and the subjective experience of your life, and look at it from the outside. Where are you right now? Which assets and liabilities do you own, where do you live, which skills do you possess, what's your social status and network like? Based on those facts, create a persona, and remember, this isn't you. It just happens to be someone sharing the exact same past and present as you. Which paths are available to this person? You don't care about working for an environmental NGO? Well, but they might. And it seems like you have all the necessary skills. So maybe just take a look at that person's life and listen to their stories. Worst case scenario: Now you know this path isn't yours.

Same as before, start each plan by formulating a few important questions that you hope to answer by sketching out the next 5 years of this hypothetical scenario. Here's my plan B from a few years ago:

I was offered the opportunity to become a team leader. And, by pure coincidence and no deliberate planning of my own, I took over some responsibilities in the field of requirements engineering. I noticed something that could be described as the first spark that might or might not turn into a burning passion for everything related to product ownership. What would happen if instead of doing what's obvious (and what I was actually qualified for), I took those random chances?

Step 3: Not even the sky is the limit

At this point, you'll likely have thought about a lot of different careers you could take on. But what if you didn't need to? So far, every plan had the same starting point: your current life. Let's make 2 small adjustments this time:

• You are not limited by financial restrictions. You are set for life and never have to work a single day. You can of course if you feel like it.
• You don't care about what others think. This doesn't mean you are a sociopathic maniac. But if you want to do something, you'll do it, no matter their reaction. Societal norms and expectations no longer impact your decision-making.

In this scenario, everything follows one guideline: What do you really want to do? What would bring you joy?

It's shocking how hard it can be to think of such a life, free of all shackles that are weighing us down. But it's an important exercise. Even though you'll most likely never make this scenario a reality (I hereby challenge you!), it'll uncover ideas and wishes that have been neglected in your busy day-to-day life. In the end, you might even find ways in which you can do these things regardless of pesky little real-life limitations. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, more on that later.

Again, come up with some pressing questions you would want to ask this alternate version of yourself. They won't be able to tell you how they got the money, but they won't shut up about the ways they are spending it.

Step 4: Reach out to experts

Remember that design thinking nonsense I mentioned earlier? It's back with a vengeance! The most despicable form of vengeance: Homework. It's time to validate and beta test some of the assumptions you made while sketching out the different scenarios. Is it feasible to buy a house in Canada, given your level of income? Aks someone that recently bought a moose-infested home in the great white north. How's life with 3 kids while you're changing jobs and have no income for a year? What does it take to be a fitness influencer? Can you learn how to create the next Instagram in 3 years? How do you get started in visual effects?

Places such as Reddit or social media platforms are great to either do the research or blatantly ask these exact questions to people that are already living your possible futures.

Try to uncover as many points of failure in your plans as possible. Put it to the test, ask experts, do some research and see if someone else already made it work (cause if no one did it, chances are it's improbable or even impossible). You have 1 week. Because next time, we'll condense everything we've learned so far into one master plan (for world domination, although that part is optional).

See you, and happy planning!

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