I Don't Know What I Want To Do

Everyone says that at some point so don't beat yourself up if you don't have it all figured out.

For high school students and young adults, you can take these steps to come to a decision. But before that, here are a few things to keep in mind.

• You have multiple purposes in life. So don't restrict yourself to just one.

• You will experience opposition with anything you decide to do, accept this & be ready to overcome it.

• No matter what you do, if it does not align with your values, you will be unsatisfied and you will lose supporters because your walk won't match your talk.

Talk to Yourself - Here are some questions to ask.

Define Yourself.

If you can define yourself, then you can define yourself to others and tell them clearly who you are, what you stand for, and what you do. People, especially employers, are more inclined to help you get ahead if they know what those goals are, and if their goals align with yours.

When it comes to deciding what you want to do in the context of school or work, its best to consider how your goal will mesh with your the roles you have that you can't change. The roles and aspects of yourself that you can't change are what make up your identity.

Who are you and what do you stand for? - This can change and if it does, your plans in life will also change. So lets just focus on this question in the context of the next 5 years.

• What are your identities and roles in life?

• What are you values?

• What are the issues you care about?

  
  

What do you want to accomplish? Be Specific.

• Do you want to help people?

• Do you want to create things?

• Do you want to entertain others?

What are you good at? - If you don't know, try new hobbies, and new skills, and take online personality tests that will recommend certain career paths to you based off your personality.

Prepare Yourself

The problem most people face is that they don't take themselves seriously and because they don't take themselves seriously, they don't properly prepare to reach their goals. Each decision you make every day either brings you further away from or closer to your goal. If you have an idea of the steps you can take to get your closer, you'll have a higher chance of success.

How do you want to help / create / entertain?

• do you want to help by providing a service like medical care, education, social services, or counseling?

• do you want to create by building things like building designs, clothing designs, game designs?

• do you want to entertain by doing things like acting, performing music, hosting a radio show / podcast?

What will it take for you to do that?

• Research

• Education

• Professional Development

• Field Experience

What obstacles might you face in trying to do this?

• Lack of financial support

• Lack of time

• Not enough experience or education

• Tense Political or societal conditions

Take It Step By Step

Humans suck at multi-tasking. Yet we still have to do it every now and then whether its to save time and to save money, or to meet high demand. You multi-task every day by default because you have multiple roles in life that you perform. Maybe you are a student and a sibling and an employee and a parent and the list goes on. The roles you play can overlap and mesh really well or sometimes they can compete with each other leaving you struggling to catch up with yourself and the obligations you have.

If you can write out a step-by-step plan for how you proceed, you will be able to plan things around your goal so that you can prioritize your goal. Also, if you have to make pit stops before reaching your goal (like working a boring job to pay the bills so you can keep studying) having a clearly defined goal will make it more bearable.

You can tell yourself "I hate that I have to hand out fries to these crazy customers but I know that if I keep working, I can pay the bills until I get to a place where I can start my next steps of going to school, getting professional development, or starting a new career".

Know Your Supporters

Whenever you have a a vision and you are on the path towards achieving that vision you will have haters and supporters. Remember, people are more likely to support clear and defined goals rather than broad goals that are too idealistic.

It's important to surround yourself with your supporters so that they can encourage you and help you get ahead. At the same time, it's important to discern who is a hater. A person who provides powerful constructive feedback on how you move through life and the quality of the work you do is not a hater. They are a supporter and an advisor. But a person who tears you down with no intent to build you up is a hater and the sooner you put up boundaries between yourself and your haters, the better off you'll be.

You can increase your supporters by clearly communicating to people about how their goals and your goals are mutually beneficial and can serve to reach a common purpose that you both care about. This is called networking.

Identify Your Supporters

• Who are the advisors and teachers in your life?

• Who are the cheerleaders in your life?

• Who are the critics in your life?

• Who has your well-being and best interests in mind?

Identify Your Haters

• Who is happy to fail with you but not ready to succeed with you?

• Who consistently puts your safety, happiness, and well-being at risk for their own gain?

• Who lies, cheats, and steals from you?

• Who puts you down with their words and actions?

Ask For Help

That's where your supporters come in. But also, asking for help can mean turning to outside forms of support like community resources, opportunities to ask a current employee about an industry, mental health services to keep your mind right, and other social services or financial assistance to help you make ends meet so that you can succeed.

Your supporters may even help connect you to those outside resources but truthfully, you are your own best advocate. Many times it is up to you to search for those resources and to do whatever you have to do to take full advantage of them.

At the Definition Writing Clinic we are happy to talk with you to get an idea of what your needs are. If we can't provide the resources through any of our services, we will do our best to get you closer to the resources that will get you ahead.

Like we said at the beginning, you can't answer the question of who you are and what you want to do in a 3-minute blog read. But hopefully, these questions will get you thinking in the right direction.