The Art of the Pivot

Called for Adventure: 12 Exercises to Discover and Live Your Life’s Calling, Exercise 11: Learning to Pivot

Exercise 11: Learning to Pivot

Called for Adventure: 12 Exercises to Discover and Live Your Life’s Calling

If you’re new here, start with Exercise 1: Committing to the Process to get oriented.
If you’ve been following along, you’ve built something powerful—a vision for your next chapter and a plan to get there.

But here’s the thing no one likes to talk about:
Life won’t follow your plan.

And that’s not failure.
That’s the adventure.

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Improv and the Art of the Pivot

Before I ever led workshops or wrote about calling, I spent years performing improv comedy with The Second City. People assume improv is about being funny or quick-witted. It helps—but that’s not really the point.

Improv is about learning to adapt when life doesn’t go as planned.
And that’s exactly what we’re doing here.

In improv, the rule is simple: Say “Yes, And.”
You accept what’s happening, and you build on it.

You don’t fight reality.
You use it.

A vision works the same way.
It’s not a rigid GPS route—it’s a direction to walk toward, one that changes and sharpens every day you move.

Finding your calling and living your next adventure isn’t about being perfect.
It’s about being present.

It’s about being awake enough to notice when the story shifts—and brave enough to keep going when it does.

That’s what real improvisers do.
They don’t cling to the script.
They listen, adapt, and trust the next right move.

And when you can do that, even the unexpected can turn out to be exactly what you needed.

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The Rhythm of Reassessment

One of the best ways to stay aligned is to revisit the work you’ve already done.
If you want to keep your story alive, go back and redo Exercises 6–10 every 3–6 months—or any time you feel the need for a reset.

Each time you’ll see something new.
You’ll have fresh information.
And your next act will become a little clearer.

Because the story doesn’t end—it evolves.

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Your Work: The Pivot Gratitude List

For today’s exercise, put your journal to good use.
We’re not looking ahead this time. We’re looking back.

I want you to prove to yourself that pivoting works—because it already has.

1. Think of three moments in your life when you wanted something specific but didn’t get it.

2. Write what you thought you wanted, what actually happened instead, and what you gained or learned from that turn.

3. Finish each memory with a single sentence of gratitude.

Here’s an example:

I wanted to stay in my first job forever, but I got laid off. That forced me to go back to school and change careers, and that changed my life. I’m grateful I didn’t get what I thought I wanted.

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Why This Matters

This is more than nostalgia—it’s proof.

You’ve already survived unexpected changes.
You’ve already adjusted your story before.
And in most cases, those pivots led you exactly where you needed to be.

This exercise reminds you that the same thing is happening now.
Your life isn’t off-track—it’s just mid-scene.

Say “Yes, And.”
You’re still in the story.

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Up Next: The Final Step

We’ve come a long way together.
You’ve reflected, dreamed, mapped, planned, and now learned to pivot when things change.

In the next and final exercise, we’ll talk about what it really means to live the adventure—how to take everything you’ve uncovered and start walking it out day by day.

It’s not about arriving.
It’s about learning to live inside the story you’ve written.