Navigate uncertainty by sketching three radically different life paths

Faced with the usual career grind—even your most ambitious plan feels like repainting the same old fence. Suddenly, a simple design thinking hack pulls you out: sketch three totally different five-year scenarios. One mirrors your current job trajectory, one assumes your first choice evaporates tomorrow, and one unleashes your wildest dream—say, a boutique ski lodge in the Alps. Suddenly, the horizon floods with options. You watch your heart race at the thought of waking up to mountain air, then feel grounded listing the steady paycheck of your current role. These parallel visions strip away the myth of the one perfect path. Curating dashboards—resources vs. confidence vs. coherence—gives each plan its own portrait and propels you past indecision. Psychological research on decision-making shows that exploring multiple futures in parallel breaks cognitive fixation, boosting both creativity and choice satisfaction. Now, each Monday morning, you check the plan that needs your attention most—because you have three real tomorrows ready to prototype.

Grab three sheets of paper and title them: here’s your current path, here’s a backup if that disappears, and here’s your blue-sky fantasy. Give each a six-word headline and plot a bedtime-to-breakfast dashboard of resources, confidence, coherence, and likability. Finally, crystallise two burning questions per plan—seedlings for next-week’s experiments. You’ll be amazed how this frees your mind.