How did you know or when did you learn what you wanted to do with your life?

11 comments

1. I’m still looking, but I’ve found a few things I enjoy and am good at, from there I turned it into a career. Rather than looking for job that makes you happy find what makes you happy and see if there is a valid career in it. Save yourself lots of cash on booze that way.

2. I just tried different things until I found something I liked.

3. I knew what I wanted to do with my life after I failed at doing what I thought I wanted to do originally (around 24). The desire to do what I’m doing now didn’t solidify until 27.

4. I’ll be 30 in six days…I’m still looking. I’m sure it will do as little to help you, as it did me, but, you are only 25. You’ve been out of highschool for what 8 years? You’re young, you have time, the large majority of us figure it out as we go, you may not find your purpose or what you enjoy until later in life. Try some things, when you have free time obviously, don’t leave your job. If your focused only on money, bills, making more money, what you can’t afford, cast those thoughts aside and find your “thing”, you’ve plenty of time friend.

   Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll still get run over if you just sit there- Will Rogers.

   Stay strong man, love your family, enjoy your time and enjoy it in the moment.

5. You assume that I know that by now. I work in IT for a few years now and try to write a book in my spare time. Neither feels like it sets the world on fire.

6. You don’t, most of the time.

   You literally make it happen as you do it

7. I don’t think I ever had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. All I knew is that I wanted to create something, invent something and ideally be handsomely rewarded for it. At your age, I was about creating opportunities. I was finishing my MS in software engineering and was taking any odd job in the field that I could lay my hands on. One of those odd contracts forced me to learn an exotic technology that no one was using (SGML), but knowing something rudimentary of it was what landed me the first real job two years later (I was doing my mandatory military service in the meantime). In a nutshell, my advice is to know roughly in which direction you want to go, and take any step in that direction that you can. Throw everything you have against the wall, something is bound to stick eventually. Don’t be discouraged if the first few times it will feel like a path to nowhere: success feels a lot like failure when on the way to it.

8. 21, living with parents, go to school, work part time, yet I have nothing planned

9. I feel like you coy and pasted this from my journal

10. I had a job I loved but it was already obvious in my early 20s that automation was in the process of wiping it out. I went to college starting when I was a year younger than you, found a major I liked, and started working in a job part time at least tangentially related to that major. Things just evolved unplanned from there until it turned out I had built a career. My last job, which I stayed in for quite a while, paid an acceptable salary and earned me recognition. I didn’t know I would care about recognition but it turned out I got a lot of satisfaction from it.

11. My life fell apart a few times for what I wanted to do so i gave up. Just waiting to die of old age now.