Giving Yourself Permission to Explore

As part of my research for my upcoming book on Career Evolution and Career by Design, I have been interviewing current and former clients about their experiences with career scenario planning.

One theme has surfaced again and again. Before participating in a scenario-planning session, many had ideas, interests, and aspirations they had been carrying for years. Yet they had never fully explored them. The ideas remained in the background—interesting, but largely unexamined. Possible, but unexplored.

What surprised me most was that the challenge was rarely a lack of options. More often, it was a lack of time and space to think about those options.

“What we discovered was the ability for me to be creative, to make an impact, to create. That word kept coming up.” CHRO, Mutual Community Bank
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Why We Stop Exploring

As careers progress, many professionals become increasingly focused on execution. They manage larger teams, take on greater responsibilities, and become experts in their field. Yet in the process, they often spend less time asking questions and more time solving problems.
The very skills that helped them succeed—focus, efficiency, accountability, and delivery—can unintentionally narrow their field of vision. Over time, many stop asking:

• What else could I do?
• What would I love to learn?
• What have I always been curious about?
• What possibilities have I never fully explored?

Instead, they become focused on optimizing the path they are already on.

Making Space for Possibility

Career scenario planning creates an opportunity to step away from day-to-day responsibilities and think differently about the future. Rather than asking, What is my next job?, participants begin asking broader questions: What kind of impact do I want to have? What energizes me? What have I always been curious about? What else might be possible?

One of the most interesting discoveries from these interviews was that many participants already had ideas worth exploring. Some had been quietly carrying them for years—a possible business, teaching, consulting, board service, a move into a different industry, or an entirely different chapter of life. Yet these ideas were rarely written down, researched, or discussed with others.

Just as often, entirely new possibilities emerged through the process itself. As participants reflected on their values, strengths, experiences, and aspirations, they began to see connections they had never noticed before.

“The scenario-planning process opened my eyes to the fact that there wasn’t just one path forward. There were many possibilities I had never seriously considered.” Former SVP, Global Insurance; now Director of a Non-Profit

The Space to Imagine

Perhaps the greatest insight from these conversations is that the challenge was not simply a lack of options. It was a lack of space. Space to think. Space to imagine. Space to connect experiences and interests in new ways before rushing to find answers.

Sometimes the most valuable outcome of a career scenario-planning session is not choosing a path. It is rediscovering the curiosity, creativity, and openness to possibility that may have been waiting quietly in the background for years.

As one participant reflected:
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“There was more, more that I could be doing than I realized, which gave me a sense of freedom and opportunity. It was what I needed to take the first step and begin the journey.” Former Senior Vice President of Communications and CEO of a Professional Association; now a Visiting Professor and Board Director

If you are looking for space to think differently about your own career evolution and future possibilities, I’d be happy to have that conversation.