All the Choices for What's Next in Life

If you’ve been following along with me these past few months, I’m aware that I keep referencing leaving my corporate job and concluding our homeschooling journey last year. Sorry about this. I’m finding that the choices of what to do next seem endless, which is perplexing—and highly privileged, I know. I don’t take the privilege aspect frivolously which contributes to my inability to be decisive—or simply weed out the mid ideas from the strong ones.

This is a consistent theme for me. In my lifetime, I have concocted many plans and schemes. Most have gone nowhere, but those closest to my heart have come to fruition in a big way. Right now though, I am not sure where I expected to be and where I want to end up. I am closing in on the answer by setting a plan for getting there—which is the most difficult for me because my brain works in mysteriously creative ways.

I currently have several projects in the works, ideas in my head, and business plans that need fine-tuning—or filing away. As the French writer and poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry penned, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” For me, this sentiment highlights the fact that while dreams are important, they can only be realized through deliberate planning and execution. 

So then, I must choose a goal and move farther into planning mode. I know that I can’t expect to end up where I want to be if I don’t set a plan for getting there. Here’s what I’m thinking.

Firm-up where I’m going next

While I did achieve what I wanted to in my career, I didn’t get there by accident. Simply put, I worked hard, pivoted along the way, had a lot of fun, and towards the end tried to share my knowledge with those who were willing to listen and learn…because not everyone is willing to listen and learn, you know what I mean?

What’s next for me must be centered around setting a plan to achieve the goal. But which goal? What has to be true for me to achieve that goal? I’m pretty sure I now know and am ready to take the steps that are needed to actually make these things true in order to achieve where I want to go next in life. I know there will be roadblocks, things will happen that will distract me and derail my plan, but if there’s anything I’ve learned it is to remain flexible—as I often remind my children.

Work hard and stay flexible

As I said, I worked hard and pivoted along the way. I started my professional journey in retail marketing which morphed into commercial real estate marketing and then landed in residential real estate marketing where I helped dozens of homebuilders and developers in a span of thirty years sell thousands of new homes throughout the western states. While the flow of my career seemed fairly effortless, I never took the many opportunities for granted and always strived to do good work and to build advocates.

This is true of my colleague and friend, Rick. He’s an advocate. We’re actually co-advocates. Rick has been cheering me on in recent weeks to get back at it in a meaningful way. He sees neither my personal sabbatical (read: gap year) nor my age (read: boomer) as detriments. To the contrary, he sees both as assets to drive a new forward path that will continue to provide an opportunity for me to do good work for good people.

I am grateful that Rick is a fan of my work. I know there are others. We all have reciprocal advocate relationships. Because that’s often how it happens when there’s a circle of people that work really, really hard in an industry that shares many of the same clients. We value one another—professionally and personally.

As I look forward, I’m increasingly aware that my next steps are less about a perfectly charted plan and more about embracing both certainty and serendipity. Plans are vital, yes, but so is the courage to improvise and the humility to revise when life doesn’t follow the script. I don’t know exactly how the next chapter will unfold, but I’m prepared to show up—curious, committed, and resilient.

Above all, I’ll keep listening: to the wisdom of experience, to the encouragement of friends, and to the quiet voice within that’s never steered me wrong for long. The next goal may be just taking shape, but I trust the process—steps taken with intention, the willingness to adapt, and a community that believes in the possibilities yet to come.

It’s easy to overlook how powerful it is to simply begin

I don’t know who else needs to hear this—who understands how all the choices can create chaos. If it’s you, I encourage you to take inventory of your choices, identify the goal, and create the plan for execution.

Momentum, after all, is built on small, consistent actions—the kinds of choices that seem almost insignificant in the moment but compound over time. Remind yourself that what matters most is not the speed of progress but the direction. Each conversation, each new idea, each risk taken or opportunity explored, is another brushstroke on the evolving canvas of what comes next for you.

Try to remain mindful of the fact that reinvention isn’t a solitary pursuit. It’s shaped by those we invite along the way—advocates, mentors, collaborators, the next generation eager to carve their own path, and even the skeptics who push us to sharpen our resolve. Community, in all its forms, remains the thread that stitches together the chapters of our individual stories.

So here’s to the road ahead: to uncertainty paired with hope, to the wisdom gleaned from setbacks, and to the courage it takes to start again—again and again, as many times as it takes. Let’s step forward, not with all the answers, but with conviction that the journey itself is reason enough to keep moving.