The challenge ahead of you as you create your own alternative path depends a great deal on where you are now, and where you want to be. While the pivoting starts here, it doesn’t demand a great deal of planning out minute details. This may seem counter intuitive, but as any productivity coach will tell you, getting caught up in the details is begging for distraction.

So, what’s a trail blazer to do?

The answer, is to use a military strategy as an example. Think about this: As a general definition military strategy deals with the planning and conduct of campaigns, the movement and disposition of forces, and the deception of the enemy. The general sees all the moving parts from light infantry to the politics any action will affect, but to plan, he can’t be bothered with all the really small details, like who sets up which trap at the time. Only when it’s time to focus on the battle does he start to think of the smaller details of what needs to happen when. Really, this is a perfect way to think about it when you break it down and apply it to changing career or life paths. Focus on the big picture for the most part, then zero in on the nuts and bolts of the action as it’s time.

You are the general in charge of an army of one — yourself. The campaign is your career path of choice, and the movements you control are simply the things that influence your ability to stay on the path you choose. Just like the general you have to see the big picture, but to get much of anything done, you can’t be focused solely on the small details. When you do, you lose sight of everything else.

The goal, then, is to see the big picture of creating your alternative path, regardless of the landscape that surrounds you. The big things are:

• money
• health
• everything related to collecting and analysing your data for your guilty pleasure
• home (food and shelter)
• family/friends/social life

Everything else is just details for right now.

So, what to focus on first?

It can be overwhelming to transition on an alternative path, especially if you’ve got a long way to go. Each situation will be different, and thus the answer to “what to focus on first” will be different depending on your needs. However, it’s important to remember that everything can be done slowly. You don’t need to jump from engineer to librarian (or any other combination) in one week. It’s important to focus on the small steps that will get you from one place to another without breaking until you get from point A to point B.

That being said, you’ll start with your assets, or what you have. This will be a relatively long list because this list should have everything from knowledge and skills to experience — even at the hobby level. It should have physical assets as well, because they might help you in the long run. Here is an example using my own extreme transition:

I had (when I began my transition 7 years ago):

• Half my bachelor’s in anthropology, a partial one in astrophysics, and minor in dance
• An addle brained idea for Insanitek
• A love of soil, rocks, and earth processes
• Experience in field survey from volunteering with the USGS
• A sense of business courtesy of my grandpa owning a gas station, and listening and helping out as much as I could
• Experience running businesses courtesy of managerial positions held at various retail outlets
• Leadership skills courtesy of military training
• Several years in foreign countries accumulated over my travels
• Willpower
• Curiosity
• A sense of adventure and creativity

I didn’t see it at the time where I was heading, but I did follow my instincts and followed my curiosity that lead to more and more questions about soil until it became healthy obsession. Somehow all these floated around until they coalesced into a plan that hatched as I was finishing up my bachelor’s in anthropology. Once it did, though, these main assets helped direct me purposefully down a path that would become my current reality.

These strengths are what you will focus on to create a plan. When you see what you have clearly, and where you want to go, you can then create a plan for what you may lack. The reason why you do this is because you can see where you are going and the holes that need to be filled in so you can get there. Far too often people start with what they lack, get discouraged, and quit before they even start. Psychologically speaking, when you start with the positive, you stay positive longer.

Now it’s time to get organised.

Positive mentality? — Check.

Good view of your strengths? — Check.

Big picture view of where you’d want to go? — Check and check.

From XKCD, click for the whole map.

If you’re here, you’re at your point A. You want to be at your point B, so you’ll need a broad plan to get there. And this, frankly, is where you get to start playing the role of a general in your own life. You’ve got an unmarked map in front of you with nothing more than the X saying “you are here” and a notion of you want to be somewhere else. If it helps, think of it as a conquest of trials and tribulations to get there, too. Be warned, there are monsters, and they are mostly lurking in your head.

The map really consists of things you know that you’ll need to get where you’re going. Here was my list of mountains, dragons, and other nasties that I knew I’d have to deal with on the way.

• In depth knowledge of something sellable (soils services, in my case)
• A willing buyer (urbanite farmers)
• Equipment (and money to buy it)
• A lab (and money for that)
• A platform for outreach (internet, Rosie’s Gardens)
• Money
• Health (my health did deteriorate between my original list and this one due to cancer, followed by broken feet)
• Credentials
• Red tape (regulations of EVERY variety to get Insanitek running the way I want)

I had a lot to work on, and I still do. However, I got the knowledge and credentials in one fell swoop. The platform of Rosie’s Garden’s fell in my lap, followed by the buyers. Hell, while I knew I wanted to do something in soils, I thought it would be environmental work for a city, not your average urban farmer. That just happened by opening up my ears and listening.

Then, I was faced with the problem every independent researcher has: how to actually do it… and how to pay for the equipment. This is where Insanitek comes in because I’ve been buying equipment and putting it in storage — unless it’s for the Savvy Urbanite Project, at which point in time it gets set up in my home lab… also known as my dining room table. (When research is in motion, we eat on the couch. >.>)

Someday, when I have the money for it and the cash flow, I will be renting or buying a space where we can lease out the equipment to other independent researchers so they can live their dream like I am, but with one less worry of where they set up and how to afford the equipment. Granted, that’s a while in coming because there is a lot of red tape dragons that I’ll have to tackle and defeat one at a time with an army of lawyers.

Every map is gong to be different.

This is just one example. Every single story is going to have a different map, different set of beasts to defeat, and different obstacles lying before them. The key is to start with the positive so you can focus on them while you work your way from one obstacle to another. Only once you reach the obstacle do you really start thinking about the details of getting past it.

And you?

What are your strengths you want to play up to? Let’s celebrate them here and now. The pitfall and sand traps you need to overcome? Tell me in the comments so I can help you gather information you need to overcome them.