Life handed me a surprise change in fate last week when my office announced a major reorganization and let a large number of us, including me, go.

I’d been contemplating a job change for a while, since while what I was doing was interesting, it wasn’t what I was passionate about. But I was comfortable, I liked the people I worked with, and I was afforded enough freedom in the breadth and accomplishment of my tasks to keep me content, if not happy, so I didn’t pursue the hunt with much vigor, dismissing job listings frequently and applying for new positions rarely. Obviously that approach no longer works.

In my better moments, I’m inclined to look at this change in fortune as an adventure: Who knows what the future holds?! There are a great many possible paths before me yet, and I am okay with experimentation. When traveling places in real life, I like to look at the big picture, plot a rough line to my destination, and then wing it, much to the frustration of those companions who prefer a plotted course. I figure that this jaunt to my next career will likely take a similar approach, and I am okay with that.

I have some ideas about what I might like to do, but remain open to what the winds blow before me. I had an older coworker at one point who said you don’t have to figure out what you want to do when you grow up; you just have to figure out what you want to do next. I can do that. After all, I’ve just spent 15 years working on projects that I never would have chosen if left to my own devices, and I’m probably the better for it. And I have a healthy appreciation for the role of whimsy in decision-making.

My current game plan is to divide my time up into thirds: a third will be devoted to job hunting, professional development, and other career-related tasks; a third will go toward getting our apartment cleaned up (because we were already short on space before I brought 15 years’ worth of odds and ends home from the office); and a third will go toward personal enrichment and mental health care, so that when I do find that next position I’ll be able to enter it as my best self.

Obviously, though, if you can send some good thoughts my way, I’d appreciate that.