How to Find the Gnarly, Unmarked Trail to Your Potential
The Urge to Climb
Playing with my 8-month-old grandson the other day I watched him repeatedly try - and mostly fail - to pull himself up. Any surface would do; he was determined to get up there and stand on his two little legs and see what was up there.
It struck me: we are born with this. A drive to get to the next level, to see what's up there. It's not taught. It's just there, from the very beginning. That drive doesn't disappear when we grow up. It just gets harder to identify where it should lead.
The Path Gets Murky
As children and young adults, the path is preordained. School, grades, college, first job -- most of us follow it without questioning whether it's leading somewhere we want to go. As my Success Lab partner Vanessa Hicks likes to say, if you follow the prescribed path, you may miss the series of gnarly, unmarked trails that lead somewhere you really want to go.
I see the consequences of this every day in my practice. Clients come to me feeling the pain of plateau. They worry they aren't fulfilling their potential, that they're falling behind their cohort. Unlike with the milestones of childhood, there's no obvious next rung to grab. And that feeling of being stuck? It's one of the most demoralizing experiences I witness, because these are capable, driven people who haven't lost the urge to climb. They've just lost the path.
A New Kind of Scramble
And now we are all suddenly contending with a technology so fast-moving and so pervasive that it's rewriting the rules of work, faster than we can track. AI is not only changing what jobs exist; it's changing what expertise is worth, what differentiates you, what hiring managers believe they’re looking for.
That may feel terrifying, like the ground is shifting right when you were about to take your next step.
But here's what I want you to consider: AI can also be your most useful tool for finding the unmarked trail.
Using AI to Find Your Own Trail
The mistake I see people make is using AI to automate their job search: letting it write their resume, generate their cover letters, blast out applications. That's not differentiation, that's just noise.
The differentiator is using AI for the thinking work: research, reflection, and preparation. Here's what that actually looks like:
For career exploration:
When you're trying to figure out what's next, AI can help you see around corners. Try prompts like these:
• "Based on my background in [X], what adjacent roles or industries might I not have considered?"
• "I'm drawn to [type of work] but currently doing [current role]. Help me map a realistic path between them." Be very specific about the skills you are using in your current job for best results.
• "What questions should I be asking myself to figure out what kind of work energizes me versus drains me?"
Use it as a thinking partner, not an answer machine. Push back on what it gives you. Tell it when something doesn't resonate and ask it to go deeper.
For interview preparation:
AI can be great for stress-testing your responses. Here are some prompts to help:
• "Here's the job description and here's my resume and LinkedIn (You can download the pdf of your profile.) What gaps should I be ready to address?"
• "What questions is this interviewer [share a pdf of the person’s LinkedIn] likely asking themselves about my candidacy?"
• "Here's my answer to 'tell me about yourself.' Where does it fall flat? What's missing?"
The Part That Can't Be Outsourced
AI can help you research faster, prepare more thoroughly, and see options you might have missed. But it can't want things for you. It can't tell you what motivates you. It can't do the hard work of figuring out who you are and where you want to go.
That’s up to you. Don’t mistake a helpful tool for a You replacement. We’re not there yet, and hopefully we never will be.
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If I can help, I hope you’ll get in touch. Before embarking on an engagement, we would have a no-commitment, no-charge call to make sure it's a good fit.