Imagine yourself in a room with just one door—the door you entered through. At first, the room feels full of promise, a new space to explore. But as time passes, you’ve seen everything it has to offer. The room becomes familiar, even stifling. There is so much more you want to experience, but the only door leads back to where you started. What you need are more doors, new ways to move forward. And here’s the remarkable thing: these doors don’t already exist. They are created through your creativity, imagination, and willingness to pivot.
A pivot is the hinge on those doors, enabling movement into new rooms, new pathways. Unlike a labyrinth with a single correct exit, these pathways are yours to design. Sometimes, a pivot starts as a window, giving you a glimpse of what lies beyond. When you’re ready—and when you’ve overcome the fear of stepping into the unknown—that window transforms into a door. The pivot is what makes that door’s opening possible, turning an idea or aspiration into a tangible opportunity.
Not all pivots are intentional. Life throws its share of curveballs, forcing us to adapt. But whether a pivot is chosen or imposed, it requires resilience and openness to learning. Navigating these transitions involves more than simply stepping through the door; it’s about learning through change, unlearning old certainties, and recombining past experiences into something new.
Learning and Unlearning: The Twin Pillars of Growth
Pivots compel us to learn new skills, adopt new perspectives, and stretch beyond our comfort zones. But they also force us to confront what we need to unlearn. In organizations, this is often referred to as shedding “zombie knowledge”—outdated practices that linger even when they no longer serve their purpose. The same concept applies to individuals. To embrace a pivot, we must be willing to let go of habits, beliefs, or frameworks that no longer align with where we’re headed.
Unlearning creates space for fresh insights and innovation. It’s not always easy—after all, certainty feels safe—but it’s essential for growth. New pathways challenge us to rethink our mental frameworks, making us more adaptable and curious. They push us to ask, “What else is possible?”
Recombining: The Creative Potential of Pivots
Of all the aspects of pivots, recombining is perhaps the most exciting. It’s the process of weaving together threads from your past to create something entirely new. Recent experiences, long-held interests, and latent skills can intersect in surprising ways, opening doors you hadn’t imagined. I always find mapping to be a very valuable "recombination" tool, allowing me to connect previously disconnected ideas. That's partly why I call it "insight mapping".
For example, I’m currently exploring how to recombine my experiences with volunteering with older adults with my decades-long interest in Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). PKM has been a personal tool for organizing and making sense of information, but I hadn’t thought about applying it more broadly in my work until now. By combining these threads, I see the potential to develop services that help older adults navigate the complexities of later life, what Susan Wilner Golden describes as the 4th and 5th quarters of life (in her book Stage (Not Age)). This pivot has sparked a burst of creative energy, a new way of looking at how I can contribute.
Resilience and the Courage to Pivot
Whether a pivot is self-initiated or forced by circumstance, resilience is the bedrock that supports it. Resilience is not just about bouncing back; it’s about bouncing forward—using the lessons of the past to propel yourself into new territory. Each pivot is an opportunity to reassess what matters, to experiment, and to move closer to a life of coherence and purpose.
Conclusion: Crafting Your Pathways
Pivots are not detours; they are pathways. They challenge us to learn, unlearn, and recombine in ways that create new opportunities and greater clarity. The next time you find yourself in a room with no apparent exits, remember: the doors don’t have to exist yet. Your imagination, experiences, and aspirations can build them. And when you’re ready to step through, visualize the hinges, create your pivot and step walk forward.
What pivots are you considering, and how might they lead to new pathways in your life?
As a side note, good Personal Knowledge Management habits are helpful when considering and creating pivots.
