Why I approach my career as a journey

For the first decade of my working life I treated my career as if it were a climb to the summit. Keep ascending. Keep putting one foot after the other with an eye on planting the flag in the snow.

That worked for a while. But when my path - and my place on it - was wiped out in a blizzard I was well and truly lost.

Everything changed. I could allow myself to become snowed under or I could change my outlook. So I shifted my mindset and began to view my career as a journey instead of a plod to a certain destination.

It was liberating. 

And I’ve always loved a journey.

On a journey you’re as interested in what's happening on the way as you are in the destination.

On a journey you’re open minded, happy to deviate from the main route, excited to explore side tracks.

You’re open to learning, to discovering things as you go and encountering interesting people along the way.

A journey is an adventure, not a straight line to the - supposed - top. Because the top will inevitably always be just out of reach, or will have shifted position, or not ever be quite what we imagine. How much better to embrace a mindset where your career is a journey, and where you can enjoy the ride of the twists and turns along the way.

Here’s the ten-year-old me on one of my family’s favourite journeys, taking the train along the River Crouch from Fambridge.