Exploring the “road less traveled” is an important part of career reinvention.
We can only explore far-flung and exotic travel destinations because someone was willing to imagine what was once impossible: flight. Reinventing your career is similar – you have to be willing to imagine options that you hadn’t thought of before.
This “road less traveled” holds many opportunities. First, by thinking outside the box, you train your brain to come up with novel ideas. This is crucial in the process of reinvention, as you will find yourself in many situations where you need to be able to think creatively.
Second, you simply have more opportunities to find the perfect job if you don’t limit yourself to what you know.
Really, the “road less traveled” shouldn’t be less traveled. You should embrace the unknown!
However, it is precisely this unknown or ambiguity that frightens us.
Ambiguity and risk are similar in that the outcome of an event is uncertain. In the case of risk, however, we can discern the odds that something might happen, while with ambiguity we don’t even have a clue.
Imagine that there are two finalists for a position, and you’re one of them. We could estimate that the chances of not getting the job are about 50 percent. In other words, you know the risk.
However, what if when you interviewed for the job, they only told you that they were interviewing “more candidates.” How many is “more?” Five? Ten? One hundred? In this case, you know nothing about the odds; the outcome is ambiguous.
If reinventing your career is high on your to-do list, be sure to step outside of your comfort zone, embrace the unknown, and take the “road less traveled”.