The more people I talk to, the more I understand that we’re all living a similar version of the story: Trying to make it all work, dealing with challenges as they come up, celebrating small wins and trying to recover from the setbacks and gut punches life throws at us. Nobody said this would be easy. Then again, nobody said we couldn’t change the rules or play a different game altogether.

Talking to a work acquaintance who I thought had a pretty defined career lane right in front of him, he revealed that he’s taking a left turn onto a completely different route. My only response was encouragement to follow the route the internal GPS recommends. Our way is our way, not someone else’s. Who am I to tell someone which way to go with their life? All we can do is help them hear the call and support them when they find the courage to make a change.

I’ve had similar conversations lately with others. Rerouting is never easy. Sometimes it’s forced upon us, sometimes we force it upon ourselves, but the change can be disorienting and a little terrifying when we don’t feel fully in control. But we ought to remember that we’re more resilient than we give ourselves credit for, and when we find ourselves turning onto another route it’s usually better to accelerate and see how far we can go than it is to do a U-turn.