Dooley Noted: 6/15/2015
I’ve had some success in my career.
And I’ve heard the secret to success is building a five-year plan.
Any time I’ve been given advice to write out this, I would sit in front of a blank sheet of paper.
I never found the exercise useful.
After all, aren’t we supposed to leave ourselves open to new opportunities?
While visualizing goals is helpful, I don’t want to project what I foresee happening five years from now onto every day of my life.
So, I wanted to analyze if this tendency has hurt me.
I decided to look back to five years ago.
I was in my last few months of a master’s fellowship in anatomy.
I hadn’t treated a patient since chiropractic school.
And I was happily living on a stipend that now resembles my quarterly tax payment.
I had accepted an offer to teach at my alma mater.
And I was, again, forgoing a clinical practice for academia.
Under pressure, I suppose I would have told you back then that my five-year plan was teaching and being a chiropractor, while raising a family.
I certainly wouldn’t have told you that I would be a globetrotter, attempting to change the way anatomy and clinical assessments are taught.
I would never have expected to own a gym with people that inspire me every day.
I would never have anticipated working for five schools, teaching anatomy.
And I definitely would not have predicted to still be in school, plugging away at a master’s degree in acupuncture and oriental medicine.
As this blog didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have predicted being consistently posting my observations of the therapy world every day for an over four-year run.
Since I was a distance runner back then, I sure as hell wouldn’t tell you I would be a member of the community that believes in improving strength deficits.
Very little of my current life would have been featured in a five-year plan made in 2010.
My lawyer told me recently to write out a new five-year plan.
While I’m happy to try to give this to the people that want it for business, I can’t say I can do it for myself.
Life is happening with too much volition to sit around and predict it.
So, don’t let people make you feel bad about not knowing what you’ll want in five years.
You’re changing every day.
You can follow the plan.
Or, you can open yourself up to the endless world of possibilities.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
