The ‘Career’ Walkabout
If you Google the term walkabout you get the following definition.
A spiritual walkabout is a practice that involves being open to the world, being alone, and seeking a deeper break from routine. It can also be a time to let go of formal identity, balance the soul, and allow space for the unexpected.
And more commonly - An Australian Aboriginal rite of passage that involves a journey into the outback to transition from youth to adulthood undergoing a spiritual transition.
The past few years for me have been exactly this. I didn’t set out for it to be.
I honestly believed that you just kept progressing through your career until you reached, Maslow’s definition of ‘self actualisation’. You may take a few side steps along the way but essentially you move up and to the right in the graph of your life.
The reality is it doesn’t quite work like that. I sold out of my business after 18 years of toil and jumped two feet into a seeming abyss of uncertainty. Maybe I didn’t read the sign on the door I was walking through but once I stepped through it and it closed firmly behind me…that’s when the fear kicked in.
The fear that the path ahead was unclear (and believe me I had always been the man with a plan!). The fear that I’d made a huge mistake, the fear that my identity had been so wrapped up in my business that I was naked without it and would be discovered as having been a fraud all along. That any success that was achieved had nothing to do with me.
Had somebody given me Googles definition of the path I was on, perhaps it would have been more reassuring. “A time to let go of formal identity, balance the soul, and allow space for the unexpected.” It definitely didn’t feel like that at the time but I know with hindsight that it was the fear talking. So many of us have our identities, so wrapped up with what we do that we don’t even realise it. We unconsciously stay in the safe zone of our chosen profession and never truly detach from our public persona.
Similar to the right of passage, passing from youth into adulthood that the aborigines intentionally embark on. I believe we all go through this in our career if we are brave enough to step into the uncertainty. It’s so easy to stay in the shallow waters as they feel so comfortable. The reality is there is real growth in the deeper darker waters if we’re willing to brave them.
In aboriginal culture the journey or ‘Walkabout’ often comes with a companion. ‘An elder’ who can help guide the way. The modern day equivalent could be a coach or therapist. My advice to anybody finding themselves in a career or life transition is choose your companion well. I think it was Carl Jung who said I can only ever take a patient (client) as far as I’ve been myself. In my instance I’ve navigated some very deep waters over the past years and that’s why I feel well equipped to assist people on their own version of a 'career' Walkabout.
