A career is not a straight line, and trying to plan it as one creates a particular kind of frustration. You set a goal, the circumstances change, the path you expected isn’t available, and suddenly the plan feels like it’s fallen apart. When it hasn’t — it’s just evolved.
The professionals who navigate long careers most effectively tend to think differently about time. Not in terms of five-year plans, exactly, but in terms of seasons.
A season has a purpose. It might be a season of depth — of getting very good at something specific, of building a foundation that will serve everything that comes after. It might be a season of breadth — of intentional exposure to new environments, ideas, and people, even at the cost of some immediate advancement. It might be a season of consolidation — of deepening relationships, stabilising your finances, recovering from a stretch that cost you. It might be a season of growth — of deliberately putting yourself in situations that are above your current comfort level.
None of these seasons is more valuable than the others. Each serves something. And knowing which season you’re in allows you to measure your progress against the right criteria — rather than against a generic expectation of constant upward movement.
The mistake is treating every season like it should look like the growth season. Depth seasons look slow from the outside. Breadth seasons can seem unfocused. Consolidation seasons can feel like stagnation. But they’re not. They’re necessary.
Where are you in your career right now? And what does this season actually need from you?
That’s a more useful question than “am I where I’m supposed to be?”