Benjamin Todd

For example, you might start looking at organization building roles and later focus on becoming a PR specialist.

A common mistake is to obsess about which longer-term options seem best in the abstract, so once you have a rough idea of longer-term options, turn your attention to generating ideas for concrete next steps.

Spend longer planning your next steps Ultimately, the decision you need to make is what to do next.

Thinking about your vision is useful, but only because it helps to guide that decision.

Your next step could be a new job, but it could also be a course or a new project.

Typically, it'd be something you might do for a couple of years, though it could be from a few months to five-plus years.

For example, accepting a job at Oxfam, spending a summer studying Chinese, or starting a blog while continuing in your current job.

Trying to work out whether you should, for instance, be a researcher, like Dr. Nalan, or a communicator like Rosa Parks, longer term, is hard because it's abstract.

It's often a lot easier to work out which concrete job or graduate program to take.

Sometimes it makes the decision really obvious.

For instance, if you don't get into any good graduate programs, that'll be off the table.

It's also even possible to skip having a vision and only focus on next steps.

With each step, you'll ideally gain some career capital, learn more about what fits you best, and increase your impact.

Putting yourself into a better and better position and having more and more impact over time.

In this way, you can build a great career step by step, even if you have no idea where you're going to end up.

Hopefully, this feels like a relief.

Even if you have no idea what you want to do longer term, you can still build a great career iteratively.

And if you do have some good ideas for your vision, that's a bonus.

So, while we recommend most people spend some time thinking about their longer term vision, most people should spend even more time identifying and comparing concrete next steps.

Working backwards