I am currently reviewing my life goals. There are mainly two issues I have: too many goals with lack of priorities, and no real career plan.
A lot of advice like “follow your heart” or “do what makes you happy” or “earn as much as possible” are too simplistic for me. I am looking for some kind of overall framework I can apply that will give me priorities and let me select goals. I don’t just want to do things because they sound cool.
My colleague and friend, let’s call him Dave, seems to have this figured out: he loves his work, is successful at it, he says work is where he spends most of his time so it’s most important, doesn’t have too many hobbies (except his kids), outsources most things he doesn’t want to do, lives in the city in an apartment…
I am more or less the opposite: I live in a house in the country side, want to do as much myself as possible, have lots of hobbies and interests – however, I am only like 60% as successful at work (because I work fewer hours, don’t do overtime, don’t spend my free time thinking/reading about work, etc), but I still want the cool roles and promotions… we are both in upper-middle tech management roles and I am trying where I want to head in the future: do I want to become a freelancer, CIO, just continue and reduce my hours?
Right now I don’t really like my work, because it aligns less and less with what I enjoy doing, but it pays well and so I am a bit in golden handcuffs, putting in minimum effort that is needed. That’s not really how I want to continue.