This advice would have helped Christopher Columbus who literally was off course by a minimum of 10,000 when he set sail for India in 1492.  He underestimated the Earth’s circumference and mistakenly believed that he reached Asia when he arrived in the Caribbean islands. This led to the label the “West Indies”, enabling Columbus to a moral victory.

I will never forget when I met with the JPL engineers in 1982, who showed me the 5 feet of computer printout that recorded the 1500 course corrections for its orbit. As they told me, “while it appeared to be moving in a continuous straight line, we had to make sure it got where it needed to….”

In our busyness, in our activity based lives, we think we’re constantly making adjustments and course corrections. Advancing our lives through professional development and experiences and networking. Most of the time there’s a regression to the mean. To what is comfortable and habitual. We feel good because we’re busy. Striving. Climbing and sliding. All along we’re slightly unclear or dissatisfied with the results of our efforts. And time passes extremely quickly.

Mixed metaphor: The frog in the pot of water. When it’s cool and temperate, feels good nothing is wrong. It’s warmer, feels good. When it starts to boil it’s too late.

It can feel like we are not getting what we want and getting what we don’t want.

Tragedy or calamity is what usually forces us to consider the temperature and where we are. Our achievements are assumed and taken for granted. We tend to wait and we are reactive versus reflective.

How far off course are we?

The reality is whenever you awaken to the truths about who you are and what you want—it’s a crisis. It can come at any time or sadly never at all. There is much mythology and reality around “mid-life” crises. “Quarter century crises” etc.

Whatever gives us pause, is worth noticing.

Often only suffering will stop our suffering.

Professor Adam Alter of NYU has led multiple studies that has found that:
“Although humans measure time using a continuous scale, certain numerical ages inspire greater self-reflection than others. Adults undertake a search for existential meaning when they approach a new decade in age (e.g., at ages 29, 39, 49, etc.) or imagine entering a new epoch, which leads them to behave in ways that suggest an ongoing or failed search for meaning.

His findings show that we tend to react  rather impulsively to our crises. Huge upticks in people registering for marathons and some quasi-extreme sports. Divorce rates rise and new careers are pursued.

The search for existential meaning as they approach a new decade. My unscientific research shows it starts as early as the seventh or eighth year of the decade. Meaning 28, 38, 48, 58…….

I first encountered this phenomenon in the Freshman surveys that have been conducted every year for more than 50 years. First year students in every state and in all levels of higher education were queried about their views of the world. A few times the researchers re-surveyed the same students 10 years after their freshman year, most of whom were 28 or 29.

Here how the first year students ranked their life priorities compared to their decade older selves.

 
This was 25 years ago. Not sure it would be exactly the same. But to me it is intuitive. Money declines. Expertise is elusive. And the need for “a philosophy of life” remains one of the most frequently cited notions in my conversations of all ages in “crises”. The great desire to retool, re-think and revise their professional, often physical health, and frequently their spiritual goals. This is what “existential” entails. It is a wholesale review of the assumptions of one’s life.

What is the meaning of what I am doing and who I am?

We can get stuck, settle, and even resign ourselves to what we are doing.

Alter’s research reveals how common these “crises” are. That we all grapple with external and internal factors. External means that we don’t have what it takes to move forward. We lack the money or resources. But that’s only true in 10% of cases. The other 90% is internal. And that form of “stuck” is surmountable. By taking control and making changes we can move forward and get back on track toward greater fulfillment and meaning.

Love philosopher Will McAskill’s assessment that we spend more time making a selection off a dinner menu than we do on our critical life choices.

Not counting the rumination, the fretting, the worrying, the stress and certainly not the grasping for answers. The time we devote to a comprehensive destination check and where we are truly headed.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. Seneca

Never just talking about our jobs, but our lives. Here’s the deal. We need diverse portfolios of interests, passions, and vocations. Things that allow us to have multiple places for us to derive meaning and fulfillment.

Calendar some time for reflection. Stop and devote time to taking stock of what you want. You can recalibrate it any time. You can wait until you approach a decade, or you can do it now. A mini sabbatical. Time to formally assess where you are. What you want. What’s working? What’s not? What is missing and what must go? Refresh your philosophy of life. Deal with the friction in your life. Make this a habit every 3-5 years.

Consider adopting an explore, experiment, and execute approach to building your portfolio.  

Explore: If you are uncertain of what your new plan is, then make a short list of things you want to do and will explore. 5 max. Things that energize you. Exploration involves seeking out new experiences, skills, and possibilities to winnow down your list.  Embracing your curiosity to effectively seek out new knowledge, skills, and experiences that can expand your horizons and open up new possibilities. This involves research, education, attending conferences, reading books, and engaging experts.
Experiment: Take this short list of concepts that energize you and lay the groundwork for your idea, start-up, side hustle, avocation. Write a manifesto, a business plan outline. It will take you into new conversations and opportunities to get private feedback.
Execute: Pick the one or two that continue to energize you and seem feasible. This is showtime. Shift now to focus and execution. Prototype your concept for your new career, your side business, or your volunteer career to get feedback from the marketplace. Refine your models and iterate. And go back out into the market.

A game of inches.
A life of miles.
Course corrections.
Crises management.
Stop, listen.
The water is warming.
We evolve.
The clock ticking.
Never too late.
To reset the sails.