Changing your Master Plan

In the past, I wrote about creating a Master Plan, and then went over the Paco Master Plan.  Now I'm going to write about forgetting everything I wrote.

You see, Master Plans are there to serve you – you're not there to serve your plan.  Remember; you are in control; if something doesn't work, get rid of it, and move on.

Anita Johnston wrote a good analogy for this.  Imagine you fall into a roaring river, and as you flail around, your hand brushes against a log that is floating downstream.  Quickly you grab hold of the log and it saves your life as you rush through the cascading rapids.  Finally, you make it to a calm part of the river, and now you can swim to shore.  But wait a minute – as hard as you try paddling, you can't seem to make any headway towards shore.  That's because you're still holding on to that log.  But, you think, that log is what saved your life when going through the difficult periods.  Yes, that's true, but now as you try and make progress, it's holding you back.

Master Plans are the same way.  They help give you direction in your life and get you going in the difficult periods.  But as you shift focus or learn more, the plan that you so painstakingly prepared may no longer serve you.

Take my situation.  When I created my Master Plan, I felt that the most important thing was to move to Oregon.  I was willing to take any job just to get there.  But as I've done my research, I've decided that my first priority is to get a job in the academic advising field, regardless of the location.  As I changed my focus, my plan needs to change as well.  As I explore the “how” of finding a job in the field, I've started to apply for jobs near where I live, as well as conduct informational interviews in this area.  It's much easier to accomplish this than trying to do informational interviews 16 hours from my house.  Parts of my Master Plan have been rewritten, and my success has increased as well.  If I had continued to focus on the Oregon job hunt, it would have been much more difficult to reach my goal.

Now, does that mean my original Master Plan was faulty?  Not at all.  It was the best plan I could create with the resources I had.  I learned a lot from my two weeks in Oregon.  One of my recent job interviews stemmed from an application I submitted while on my trip.  And my plan changed as a direct result of my experiences in Oregon.  My plan changed my course of action, and my course of action changed my plan.

So by all means, continue to create a Master Plan.  I have one, even if I haven't updated it online.  It gives you direction.  Just don't be afraid of changing that direction when your personal goals change.