What If This Isn’t It?

Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash

Here’s a question for you on a Friday afternoon: when did you last allow yourself to properly daydream about doing something different?

Not the fleeting “wouldn’t it be nice if...” thoughts that pop up during a particularly tedious budget meeting. I mean really sitting with the possibility that the career path you’re on—the one you’ve worked so hard to build—might not be the only one available to you.

I’ve noticed something curious in my work with senior leaders. The higher people climb, the less permission they give themselves to explore alternatives. It’s as if reaching a certain level means you’ve made your choice and now you’re committed to seeing it through. But that’s not how careers actually work, and it’s certainly not how fulfilment works.

The Competence Trap

You’re good at what you do. Possibly brilliant at it. You’ve spent years developing expertise, building networks, understanding the unwritten rules of your industry. This competence feels safe. It’s also why considering something different can feel so uncomfortable—even vaguely threatening.

But here’s what I see repeatedly: the skills that got you to where you are now are rarely as narrow as you think. Leadership is leadership, whether you’re running a team of engineers or opening a cafe. Strategic thinking applies across contexts. The ability to manage complexity, navigate relationships, and make decisions under uncertainty? These travel.

What might be keeping you stuck isn’t lack of capability. It’s the weight of sunk costs and the fear of starting again.

Permission to Wonder

You don’t need to hand in your notice to explore what else might be possible. In fact, please don’t. But you do need to give yourself permission to wonder.

What would you be doing if you weren’t doing this? What did you care about before your career took over? What problems do you find yourself drawn to in the news, in conversations, in those moments when your mind wanders?

Sometimes the answers surprise us. The CFO who realises she’s more interested in the environmental impact statements than the financial ones. The MD who lights up when talking about the mentoring programme but switches off in strategy meetings. The partner who’s spent twenty years in law but keeps designing furniture in the evenings.

These aren’t idle curiosities. They’re data.

The Adjacent Possible

You don’t have to leap from one extreme to another. Career transitions rarely work that way for senior people anyway. But there’s usually something adjacent to where you are now—something that uses what you know but points you in a slightly different direction.

A consulting role rather than an executive one. The same sector but a different type of organisation. The same function but in an industry that aligns more closely with your values. A portfolio career rather than a single employer.

The adjacent possible is about finding the overlap between what you’re good at, what’s viable, and what actually matters to you. All three need to be present, but the third one—what matters—often gets the least attention.

A Practical Starting Point

As you head into the weekend, try this: write down three things you find yourself consistently curious about or energised by. Not “I should care about this” items. Things that genuinely interest you.

Then ask yourself: what might it look like to do more of that? Not necessarily in a new job—just more of it, somewhere in your life.

You might discover that your current role has more room for these things than you realised. Or you might spot a pivot point—a way to shift what you’re doing without blowing up what you’ve built. Or you might confirm that yes, something needs to change more substantially.

All of these are useful pieces of information.

One Last Thought

The career you have now isn’t the only career available to you. That’s not a criticism of where you are—it’s simply true. And the longer you spend in senior roles, the easier it is to forget this.

You worked hard to get here. But “here” isn’t necessarily where you need to stay.

Sometimes the most strategic decision you can make is to take your own ambitions seriously again—including the ones that don’t fit neatly into the narrative you’ve been telling yourself about who you are and what you do.