Everyone knows the secret to success. Start young, find something you love, and then work as hard as possible without changing course. Right?

When you look at the careers of successful people, it is easy to get that impression. Just think of Taylor Swift, or Emma Raducanu, or Leonardo DiCaprio.

But what if you never started tennis lessons at the age of four, or failed to sign your first record label by the time you were 16? Does that mean you have missed the chance for a good career?

Plenty of successful people take an indirect route. In business and politics, it is normal to try several different things before deciding on one path. But this does require being comfortable with not knowing exactly where you are going.

In the Middle Ages, most self-help books were written by monks and nuns. Known as medieval mystics, they explained religion in terms of emotion, instinct and spiritual wisdom. They also understood this need for flexibility in the path through life.

Meister Eckhart, a mystical writer from 13th Century Germany, wrote that people should "live without a why". He did not mean living without any purpose, but rather not placing your self-worth on one single achievement.¹ Modern science agrees, warning against the "arrival fallacy", where people wrongly think the next goal - a job, a house, a partner - will finally make them happy.

Instead, it is a good idea to keep your options open. This is the argument made by the website 80,000 Hours, which helps people find fulfilling careers and acknowledges that you will change, jobs will change, and the world will change.

According to psychologist Heidi Grant, however, "keeping your options open leads to less happiness and success, not more".³ That is because if people can reverse a decision, they are more likely to worry that they have made a mistake.

The employment landscape is changing quickly. According to research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, six out of 10 jobs in the US did not exist in 1940.⁴ More importantly, two-thirds of the fastest growing professions were invented in the past 20 years - from AI engineers to environmental consultants.⁵

Having plans and goals makes us happy. However, it is important to revisit and revise them often. As Meister Eckhart wrote: "The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake."

Is it okay to be unsure?

Yes: Nobody knows what the employment market will look like in a decade. The more flexible people are, the more they can change direction as the world around them changes too.

No: Keeping options open either means you are less likely to make a decision, or more likely to regret that decision. If you commit to one thing, your brain begins to believe you have made the right choice.

Or... It's useful to have a plan, but it is also useful to revise that plan regularly. Trying the wrong things is how to learn what you want from life.