Three-Path Odyssey Plan
Compare three possible futures to uncover values and options
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The Three-Path Odyssey Plan replaces one supposedly correct five-year plan with three contrasting versions of the future. The first extends the person’s current trajectory: if nothing fundamental changes, what might life look like? The second develops a credible alternative based on another interest or direction already under consideration. The third removes money and social expectations to reveal what the person might choose under radically different constraints. Comparing the plans surfaces recurring values, environments, relationships, and activities. The practitioner does not need to select one future wholesale; useful elements from the imaginative plans can be brought into the current path through small experiments. The result is a more flexible direction that acknowledges uncertainty while still informing present decisions.
Origin
Jade Bowler explained the Stanford life-design exercise after previously introducing it to Ali Abdaal through one of her videos.
Core principles
- 01A single predicted future creates false certainty
- 02Alternative futures reveal overlooked options
- 03Removing money and status exposes underlying desires
- 04A plan can guide action without becoming a permanent commitment
How to run it
- 1
Extend the current trajectory
Imagine continuing along your present educational, professional, and personal path for five years. Describe daily life rather than listing only job titles or achievements.
Pro tip Include location, relationships, routines, health, and work.
Watch out Do not portray the current path as inevitable.
- 2
Create an alternative path
Choose another direction you have genuinely considered and imagine committing to it. Make the future concrete enough to compare with the first plan.
Pro tip Select an alternative that is meaningfully different but still conceivable.
Watch out A deliberately absurd second option will reveal little.
- 3
Remove money and expectations
Imagine what you would do if social approval and financial pressure did not determine the choice. Use this path to expose neglected desires and values.
Pro tip Focus on how you would spend ordinary days, not just dream holidays.
Watch out Treat this as a discovery exercise, not a promise to ignore real constraints.
- 4
Compare the three futures
Identify recurring themes, energising differences, and elements that create resistance. Look beneath roles to the values each future serves.
Pro tip Mark features that appear in at least two plans.
Watch out Do not reduce the comparison to prestige or predicted salary alone.
- 5
Run a small experiment
Bring one appealing element into present life through a conversation, class, side project, trip, or temporary role. Use experience to update the plans.
Pro tip Choose an experiment that is reversible and produces new information.
Watch out Do not wait five years to discover whether an imagined path suits you.
In the wild
A student maps becoming a doctor, pursuing science communication, and spending life writing and travelling if money and expectations disappeared. Across the plans, teaching and flexible creative work recur, so she starts a small educational project while continuing her degree.
→ She gains evidence about an alternative identity without prematurely abandoning her current path.
A creator compares scaling a media company, joining an organisation, and living remotely while making independent projects. Flexibility and meaningful collaboration appear repeatedly, so he evaluates future opportunities against those values.
→ A vague career question becomes a set of testable priorities.
Common mistakes
Writing only job titles
A role says little about the daily experience, relationships, or values that make a future attractive.
Treating the plan as destiny
The exercise generates possibilities and experiments rather than a permanent prediction.
Ignoring present experiments
Imagining futures without testing their components leaves assumptions unchallenged.
Is it for you?
Best for
Students, graduates, and career changers who can imagine several plausible directions.
Not ideal for
Immediate high-stakes decisions governed primarily by legal, medical, or financial constraints.
From the transcript
“the idea is that you create different versions of how your life could go.”
“you do a second Odyssey plan which is what if you picked an alternative path?”
“lastly, you imagine if societal expectations didn't matter and money didn't matter, how would your life look in five years?”
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