Experiment!

Some of us are the kind of people who can think our way into change — we can imagine alternative lives, we can believe that we’re qualified for this other career, we can create step-by-step plans to get us from here to our dreamed-of future.

But some of us need things to happen in the real world for us to be able to figure anything out.

What about this?

If you’re the type of person that needs to interact with the great wide world to figure things out, relying on brainstorming and research isn’t going to cut it.

In that case, try experimenting.

In other words, if you’re interested in doing something other than academia and you aren’t sure if it would work, apply and see what happens. At the very least you’ll get experience applying and you’ll be able to observe your own reactions to the possibility. At most you might get real feedback on your skills or even, gasp, get a job offer. Right there you’ll learn things about yourself and what you want to do next.

Nothing is all or nothing

The thing that usually holds us back from experimenting is the fear that if we apply, we have to take it. Or if we take a short course in something to find out more, we’re obligated to take the next one. Or if we contemplate doing something else, we’re turning our back on academia entirely, forever and ever.

But it’s not true. You may wade into the waters of the post-academic world and decide you like things the way they are. You might learn something that you can bring back to where you are and change it for the better. You might simply answer the “what if” question that was at the heart of your restlessness. Who knows?

The cool thing about experimentation is that its goal is simply to learn. At every stage, at every different fork, you can ask yourself what you want, what feels better, and what you want to know next. And that means that it’s always successful — because you can’t experiment and not learn things, even if the thing you learn is that project X is not for you.

So, what kind of an experiment would answer some of the nagging questions you’re facing? What would you need in order to try those experiments? Inquiring minds want to know.