I have been lost since I left hoghschool. I used to be good at a lot of things sports ,grades were good ,had a few girlfriends but since I left I can’t play sports cause of health and am not in college cause I don’t have funds for it and frankly don’t wanna go. I have a shit job delivering food and wanna better myself . I read and try to make passiv income but not working . Anything helps thanks
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Maybe try a trade school instead of college.
Become an electrician or plumber.
At this stage in your life it’s more important to work on who you want to be, not what. Survive and stay afloat however you can. Work on determining your morals, ethics, beliefs, and philosophies. This will help you with the what.
I got an AAS in criminal justice just to have a degree to put on my resume it was pretty easy and cheap. Then I applied to jobs I thought sounded good which only asked that I had “any” degree.
I don’t make a ton of money but I have a pretty easy job that pays my bills with a little left over. I have enough to travel around a little and I refuse to be over worked.
It’s very hard to start out as a young person these days and I hope the best for you.
Honestly, job hopping. Working a place for a couple weeks to see if you would like the feel of the environment or the company, and if you don’t just leave and find a new one
CDL Training – Drive a truck.
Join the military (though you mentioned something about health)
Learn a Trade – HVAC, Electrician, Plumber, Auto mechanic etc.
College – I know you said you don’t want to go, but there are some 2 -year medical options like: Diagnostic Medical Sonographers, Cardiovascular Technologists, Dental Hygienist, Nuclear Medicine Technologist, Radiologic Technologist etc.
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There’re a lot of people in this world who work to live and don’t “love” their job (most in fact). So pick something and go with it or make the CHOICE to sit on your ass and do nothing – and you’ll remain in a dead end jobs that offer minimal benefits. Nobody gives 2 shits what you want or don’t want. I didn’t *want* to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to head into work but I did it anyways because the job pays me $104K a year and has pretty damn good benefits. I don’t live to work – I work to live. I don’t love my job but thankfully I don’t hate it either. Nothing about being an accountant called to me, I wasn’t in love with it – but I was like you and just needed to make a god damn choice. It has served me well.
Maybe try a temp service (are they still a thing?) to try out different jobs to see what works for you. Kinda wish I had went that route when I began working.
So my question is. You want an alternative that’s not difficult nor dangerous, you need it to be cheap and will assure you a future where you will not be miserable and over use your body? I just want to know so the suggestion I give fits a bit more with what you are looking for
The message I receive is in the past you had options, and now less so, and so you think you’re stuck and can’t see very far down the road.
Start with health and fitness. So that’s cook good food and go run to start. Control nutritional data and lift weights in a gym to improve upon that base. Next add supplements and a training program. This alone will be productive, last your entire life, is rewarding and be an achievement you carry with you throughout life. This becomes your foundation and base upon which you build other elements around.
Join the military reserves or apply as a waiter, or both. This provides you with income, pension, education funding opportunities and a social life. Another good foundation to life. After some time, make an adjustment to full time forces if you enjoy, start education program if you’ve found the civilian profession you want to get qualified or continue status quo
Find a job that pays good that you like & find a hobby that you enjoy that you can profit from
Figure out what you’re good at.
Understand how much income you need to support the life you want to live in the location you want to live.
Figure out what fields meet the above criteria and pursue one of them.
Doing something you’re naturally good at is a great path to follow. You’ll be good at it naturally which will lead to success.
What subjects were the easiest for you?
I would start there
Some people know. Most just take what they can get.
Do you like making friends and are good at conversation? Get into B2B sales. If you have talent, you can make some good income in 2nd year in. You can sale medical devices or software or ad space; from there you tend to expose yourself to other people, their experiences and other fields. If you are lucky, you find a mentor who has a genuine interest in your well being. Save some income, find a passion, and set some goals.
What are you good at but don’t do as a hobby? Or what do you do that you’re good at but don’t mind ruining the fun of.
My brain is wired for overthinking problems and over abundant safety so now I work in CyberSecurity. It combines a natural thing that’s easy and computers (which I’m better at than most but don’t love to do)
Lots of vocational options available. Carpentry, electrician, plumber, drywaller, welder…some require schooling, others through an apprenticeship.
The bigger question is: what do you enjoy doing?
I wanted to be an astrophysicist, and that ended when I failed to study during my undergrad. I spent a number of years trying to justify it, trying to figure out my life and what it meant to work and what I wanted in life… it wasn’t easy.
I’ve since decided to focus on what else makes me happy, which now is my wife and child. I don’t want to work long hours, but I don’t care what I do for work, because it’s my life outside of work that is what I am focusing on. Work is just a means for me to enjoy the more important part of my life. This also means I’ll choose the job that pays the most with the least amount of effort. I happen to be lucky, I do like my job, but that hasn’t changed my focus.
What I suggest now to anyone is to work to do what you love, to do what makes you happy. If your job stops you from doing what makes you happy, re-evaluate the job and what makes you happy and recalibrate. If you can make money doing what you love, that’s fantastic. A shitty job can be fun with the right team, and a great job can be terrible because of a toxic culture. The people you work with matters more than the work, more times than not.
To answer your specific question, the military isn’t a bad job to get on your feet. You definitely get out what you put in, and there’s a lot of ways you can get fucked over, but choose a trade with a direct civilian trade, then you always have an out.
Emergency Medical Technician.
It’s a hard job, but it’s how I came to fall in love with medicine. Emt course in FL where I live is one semester, costs $1500, and I make $21 dollars an hour now with medical insurance and high risk FL state retirement.
At 41 I have no idea what I wanted to do in life, I doubt I will ever figure that out.
Looks for something that your can tolerate and make enough money to find a scrap of happiness.
Once you’re surviving, look for hobbies you like. Maybe someday you can turn a hobby into a successful happy career.
Keep trying. Most entrepreneurs fail at like 5 ventures before 1 succeeds. You’re never poor. You may be broke at times, but never poor.
Hustle hard and you’ll be okay.
Understand what kind of work you are good at. Just like there are personality tests to see what type of person you are socially, there are tests to see what kind of person you are for work/professional purposes. For something like this, it might even be worth paying a small fee to have the results digested by a professional for you.
Since a 4 year degree is probably senseless at this point (cost, and even lifestyle/mentality), definitely consider trade school and self teaching. If computer/tech is the way to roll, literally everything is on the internet. Everything I learned at an expensive private school is very much sitting on YouTube. The only benefit to a school environment/culture (for some) is being held accountable with grades, homework, and project work. So you have to bring the motivation and hold yourself accountable. Maybe if you can ask someone else in your life that you wouldn’t want to disappoint to hold you accountable that could work too.
How do you know you may know enough such that someone might pay for it? I’d say qualification exams for fields that don’t require a bachelor’s degree are really just a minimum bar and rarely get you a job unless you’re lucky. What it really takes is knowledge and understanding to a degree that your thinking about the subject area has fundamentally changed — ideally, two or three times you hit a new level of understanding in a field that *clicks.* If it’s your calling, it may start to feel like fun in that you’re now searching for challenges and thinking about that subject area when you’re not even working on it. If/when you get to that point, you know that is something you can make a living doing. And also, it’s close to the time to apply for jobs. But make sure you do some research on what the job interview process looks like.
Talk to your friends and ask them about their jobs. See if any of their day-to-day work sounds like something you would enjoy. And if it does, ask them how they got there.
Regardless of the job, it’s hard to understand what the experience is like without talking to someone who has done the work. Then hopefully you can find a short path to that job.
As an aside, I learned a lot in online courses and certificates and went through multiple computer fields but reading and online courses. It’s nice because it was at my pace and not the stress or cost of actual college.
best of luck!
Just pick a direction and see it through, I used to be like you when I was younger, I was lost and thought “I have to find my passion” but what I didn’t understand was that passion isn’t found it’s created, you become passionate about something when you become good at it, progress feels good, accomplishing new things feels good, learning and growing feels good, but what doesn’t feel good is spinning your wheels and staying in the same spot. You keep questioning your decisions and you don’t finish anything…just pick something, it doesn’t matter wtf it is, anything you might think you would like and then move in that direction…you don’t need to have it all figured out, things will fall into place as you gain more skills and level up BUT if you just keep spinning your wheels then you won’t gain new skills, you won’t accomplish anything and you’re going to feel like shit…So just get started, hell go work at a shitty retail job and be the best you can! then become assistant manager, then manager, then take some business courses, then apply for regional manager positions, or maybe you no longer like that job so take the skills you learned in retail and go into sale, or start a business or do whatever the fuck you want, but sitting around spinning your wheels isn’t going to help you get ahead in life is it?
Pick a goal “I think I’d like to become an HVAC technician” or “I think I’d like to work in sales” and then just start taking baby steps toward that thing, just keep taking baby steps, don’t think too far ahead, don’t worry about “what if I don’t like it” who cares? you can always change course later down the road, use each job as a way to build experience and grow.
It’s tough dude, I know how you feel. It all Depends on what want. Figuring that out is easier said than done. It takes time and experience to find that out, so do that. Take your time, experience things, learn from those experiences.
As for actionable advice. I think 3 things are very important and a good place to start.
One; your self worth is not tied to your ability to provide or produce. You are not your job. You could make nothing and still be a person who is valued and cared about. Making money and being fulfilled are two separate things.
Two; when it comes to work, network. who you know almost always beats what you know. Unless it’s a technical job most people will just hire the guy they know or like. It’s dumb but it’s the reality. Network. You don’t have to be the bell of the ball or the most outgoing guy. Just talk to people. Show interest. Be cool. You’d be amazed what kind of connections you can make with just familiarity and genuine kindness.
Lastly; remember NO ONE has it all figured out. Life is strange and different for all of us, we are all just fumbling around and hoping for the best half the time. Take everything people tell you with a grain of salt but learn from others mistakes so you don’t have to make them yourself.
Figure out what you want. Make a plan. Then do it. Simple. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Baby steps. One thing at a time. Small goals. It all builds up. Best of luck.
i would advise you find someone you enjoy doing but isnt you “love”, so you find most pilots done “like” planes, they know them but its not something they live for.
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Doing this means your really good at your job but also have a balance to do things outside of work, there will be minor exemptions to this, but the above will make sure you are paid for work you do
Try lots of different things.
The armed forces and emergency services are fun. Try those.