When It's OK to be Scatterbrained

I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to map out the next chapter of my professional, and possibly personal life (depending on where the job takes the family). One day I'm looking at local specialty jobs, the next I'm considering a cross country move for a dream role, and the next I'm talking to a girlfriend about starting up a women-owned government contracting company together.

Some might consider this scatterbrained, but I like to look at it more as examining all my options, checking my premises as I go. I learned once in a problem solving exercise that you get your best results by starting out considering all ideas regardless how divergent, then setting your filtering/decision-making criteria, and converging in on the best one or few. It's a new approach for me, since I'm more accustomed to coming up with a plan right off the bat and beelining to the finish line.

It's definitely a great learning, growth experience for me. Hopefully I don't drive my family cuckoo for cocoa puffs in the process!