I just want to emphasize that “Making your own path can be exhausting and stressful”. And I’d add overwhelming. I have the strong tendency to make my own path rather than following the default one —for me this does not have to do with having agency but lacking it; I’m actually learning to use my agency to not deviate too much— and I am the opposite of effective. I learned a lot and I’m able to do and understand mostly anything by myself, without any help, but this came at the cost of wasting lots of time, and spending long periods confused about my next (career) steps and struggling to show the relevant actors that I’m perfectly able to take them —if you don’t take the usual path, make sure you are good at selling yourself!—. My point is that you should be very aware of this and account for your capabilities so you do not over-deviate too fast. Go one step at a time :-)
I just want to emphasize that “Making your own path can be exhausting and stressful”. And I’d add overwhelming. I have the strong tendency to make my own path rather than following the default one —for me this does not have to do with having agency but lacking it; I’m actually learning to use my agency to not deviate too much— and I am the opposite of effective. I learned a lot and I’m able to do and understand mostly anything by myself, without any help, but this came at the cost of wasting lots of time, and spending long periods confused about my next (career) steps and struggling to show the relevant actors that I’m perfectly able to take them —if you don’t take the usual path, make sure you are good at selling yourself!—. My point is that you should be very aware of this and account for your capabilities so you do not over-deviate too fast. Go one step at a time :-)