The Art of the Detour

Wasted time?

I used to think a detour was wasted time. A plan that didn't work out. A turn you'd have been better off avoiding. That mindset fits neatly into résumés, spreadsheets, and five-year plans. It fits a real life much less neatly.

The straightest paths are rarely the most interesting ones. Looking back, it's almost always been the detours that shaped me the most - not because they felt good in the moment, but because they forced me to look more closely.

What a detour actually is

A detour isn't a bug in the system. It's the moment a plan meets reality - and reality wins. You can read that as failure. Or as information.

Looking back at the phases of my life I used to experience as setbacks, I see something different today: they showed me what actually matters to me - often precisely by taking away something I'd taken for granted.

The difference between a detour and standing still

Not every detour is valuable. The difference lies in whether you stay awake. A detour you sleepwalk through doesn't get you anywhere. A detour you walk consciously - with your eyes open to what it's showing you - changes something.

That's also why I've stopped regretting my detours. Not because they were easy. But because I wouldn't be who I am today without them - and because I'm not sure the straight path would even have taken me anywhere worth going.

An invitation

If you're on a detour right now - professionally, personally, somewhere in between - don't just ask yourself how to get back to the "right" path. Ask yourself: what is this detour showing me right now?

Sometimes the answer is uncomfortable. But it's almost always more honest than the plan you let go of.