There is nothing worse than feeling lost in life. There is so much pressure to get direction and figure out what you're going to do, how you're going to make money, and do all of the usual things that adults are supposed to do. You get asked questions about your life, and all you want to scream is, "I don't know what to do with my life!"
There is also a part of every person that years to have a purpose. You want to know that you are here for a reason, which will make a difference in someone's life. You don't know how to get to it. It's like everyone else was gifted their purpose, but you have to jump in the ocean and look for a box.
By the end of this article, you will know how to start moving in the right direction. You will also understand some truths about the purpose and how it's not always about love at first sight like people think it is. Seth's advice for young people is not to wait for so long before doing things that can add value to their lives. He was lucky to identify his talent as an animator when he was a small boy. "I was about two years old when I first started drawing recognizable characters." He started growing his talent when he was a little boy, and today, he is a celebrated animator.
One reason why some people achieve little in life is that they take too long to identify their career path. Others keep postponing their plans waiting for more lucrative opportunities. It is good to start working on your goals as soon as possible. That way, you will realize them before you even know it.
“Having a sense of purpose is having a sense of self. A course to plot is a destination to hope for.” ―Bryant H. McGill
What You Will Learn in This Article
When I Don't Know What To Do With My Life Why Does It Make Me Feel So Lost?
Humans were not made to do nothing. If you don't believe it, then try doing nothing every single day for a week. Literally, don't do think but sit there and exist. You feel like a waste of skin and a soul.
The way society is set up, and work is a big part of what you do each day. There are 24 hours in a day, and 8 of those are spent working for most people. If you spend 8 hours working and 8 hours sleeping, there are only 8 hours left for anything else.
Things a Lack of Purpose Can Stem From
- Not knowing what work to pursue
- Being lost about school and its purpose
- Bad relationships with family
- A lack of closed friends
- Not being a part of any community
All of these things can help to provide a purpose and answer I don't know what to do with my life. Think about being a part of a club or going to a church. It puts you around like-minded people and helps you to have people you see regularly. Friends inspire us, family can be the reason we grind, and work is where a lot of time is spent.
When you don't have many of these things, you're not sure what you're waking up for each day, and that does not feel good.
5 Things You Should Avoid
Sometimes when you want to know what to do, its easier to understand what to avoid at all costs. The items listed below can put you down a slippery slope that you don't want to go down. This are things you should avoid when trying to find the answer to I don't know what to do with my life.
1. Drugs and Alcohol
You don't want to go down this road when you're feeling lost. You could be experiencing some forms of anxiety and depression, and being under the influence will not help you out.
If you're going to find a purpose for your life, you will need to be thinking clearly. You want to be in the best place you can be mentally. If you add drugs to your lost feelings, things will only get worse in the long run.
2. Inaction
When you are feeling lost in life, and telling yourself "I Don't Know What to Do With My Life". Your inclination may be to do nothing. To stop moving and just let your days waste away because you feel like you don't know what else to do. Don't let that lack of motivation sink into your heart.
The best thing you can do is stay busy and keep moving. Hang out with some of your good friends, workout, work if you have a job even if you don't like it at the current moment. The best thing you can do is to keep moving. Life is active, but death is very still.
3. Feeling Bad For Yourself
Don't start feeling bad for yourself. Life can be very unfair, but the truth is that you're not owed anything. You can put in the work and do all of the right things, and sometimes things still don't go your way.
Feeling bad for yourself may be warranted, but the problem is that it never helps you. When you feel bad for yourself, you spend more time in pain doing nothing and less time taking action and trying to move forward with yourself.
4. Other Lost People
Misery loves company! If you're feeling horrible about your life, you will attract and want to hang around people who are in the same place. It will feel good because you will understand and support each other. The problem is that you will spend too much time venting.
The best thing you can do is get away from these people and get around the exact opposite. Find people who are living lives like you want to live. Learn from their positive attitude and success. They will help you find ways to change your situation.
5. Comparing The Big Things
Comparison is the easiest way to rob yourself of joy. The problem is that people tend to compare the big things in life instead of the details. Stop looking at your social media and what other people appear to have. The cars, the house, family, kids, money all represent big things in life. They are horrible to compare because they are often results.
Instead, compare inputs. Look at each other's goals and habits. Compare how you workout or deal with stress. When you compare your process, you quickly see areas that you can improve. When you compare the results, you get envious.
Interesting Questions to Ask Yourself
These questions are meant to get you thinking and provide answers when asking I don't know what to do with my life. These questions will get you to start thinking on a deeper level. It's hard to answer these questions and lie to yourself.
What Can You Endure?
Everyone has something that they can go through longer than other people. Some people can workout longer because they can handle physical pain.
Some people can sit on computers all day long with an issue. Find that thing that sucks that you can take. Here is where you can get your competitive advantage because you can handle something that makes most people quit.
If You Were a Child Again What Would Shock You About Your Life Now?
This is a revealing question because it will let you see where you feel you have let yourself down. It will help you connect back to your desires as a kid and the things you saw yourself doing. Maybe you wanted to be a pro athlete, and now you're way out of shape.
Answering this will hurt, but the goal is to inspire you to stop letting the kid in you down. You don't have to accept defeat. Instead, you can start working on getting back on track.
What Are You Running From?
Often, people know what they are called to do, but they run from it because it's hard. Maybe it involves going back to school or doing work that is hard each day.
Look back on your life, and you will start noticing a pattern of running away. You will see that you start things and quit them at a very similar point. Dig into that and figure out why. Face the question "I Don't Know What to Do With My Life."
What Would You Do With 7 Years to Live?
7 years is a great number for this question because it's long enough that you can't be a bum and give up like you could with a year left to live. It is also short enough that you don't have to fear the long term failures and pain.
You would do with 7 years to reveal to you what you desire to do the most, but you have just been scared to take the first step on it. It will show you what is worth spending the final days of your life on.
8 Steps To Take In Order To Figure Out What To Do With Your Life
These are the simple steps you will take to find your path. The steps are simple, but that does not mean that they are easy. Some of the harder you can accomplish, but you must know and trust that it will be worth it. Nothing feels better than a life being lived with intention.
1. Decide
You have to make a choice. There is no more being indecisive about your life. People who have a hard time making decisions also tend to procrastinate a lot and neither move you forward.
When you see someone who is successful, its because they have decided on a destination and moved in that direction with everything they have, you need to do the same. You could choose the wrong path, but that is better than doing nothing.
2. Give Yourself 10 Years
Whatever you decide on to give yourself 10 Years. I did this when I started Habit Stacker. I gave myself a 10 year period to make it successful. When you give yourself 10 years to work on something, it locks in your commitment.
That C word may be a bit scary, but you don't get serious progress without committing to it. When you can look at a decade of your life, you also don't get to catch up on some of the small setbacks. You can better understand that success needs time.
3. Be Willing to Fail and Look Dumb
Go into it knowing that success is not guaranteed. You should always prepare for the worst but expect the best. Be optimistic about your new beginning but also have contingency plan in case things don't work out.
The biggest thing people fear about failure is looking bad but failure can give you the lessons you need to succeed at a later date so whatever you do, don't quit.
4. Put In The Work
Are you ready to work like never before? Having a purpose does not mean it will be handed to you. Now you have to do the work required. You may need to learn new skills and master old ones.
If you're looking for a purpose that requires little work, it will probably not be that rewarding. Anything worth achieving is going to be difficult. The value is in how hard it is. Others want just what you want, go out work them.
5. Believe
You have to believe in yourself if any of this is going to work. You don't need to believe to begin, but if you plan to continue, you must. Why would anyone put themselves through any hard endeavor if they don't think that success is possible?
The key to building your faith is making progress. Sitting on the couch and watching TV do not build your confidence in yourself. But setting goals and habits and then sticking with them day in and out will build confidence. You will see progress and that you're getting closer to your goals.
6. Learn From The Best
Make a commitment to learning from the best. No matter what you want to do, you can find coaches and mentors who will provide feedback and help to guide you along the way. They will help you learn from their mistakes, so you don't have t make them yourself.
Learning is a reminder to yourself that you don't know it all. Sadly one of the biggest roadblocks to success is people not being able to humble themselves and learn more.
7. Set Clear Goals
You need to have a clear long term and short term goals for your life. Goals are results that you want to achieve by specific points in time. Goals will help you to know if you're on the right track or not. When you have no goals, ten years will fly by, and you will have no idea if you're heading in the right direction.
Short term goals are anything around a year and under. Long -term goals can go from now until the day you die. Know that goals are only a starting place. You need to have habits to complete this picture.
8. Rely on Your Habits
Habits focus on the process and your daily action. If you have great habits, you will get results, but you will never see the result you want if you have amazing goals without habits. You can use apps like Habit Stacker to get started.
Habits are the things you will do every day to help you reach your goals. For example, if you want to write a book, you can set a habit of writing a certain amount of words every day. As long as you are doing that daily, you will eventually have a book.
Start Taking Action
When life is heavy, and you keep telling yourself and others, "I don't know what to do with my life" know that there is still hope. Not everyone can find purpose for life right away. But you will never find it if you don't start looking for it.
A great place to get started is with the questions in this article. They may be hard to answer, but they will reveal some truths to yourself. Once you have done, then you need to start taking action. The more effort you put towards making progress, the better you will feel.
