What should I do with my life? Quite a tricky and interesting question if you ask me.
As we journey through life and unlock the several phases, challenges, and situations that we find ourselves the need for self-evaluation and self-discovery is never-ending.
The big question of what should I do with my life always pop up. And I’ll love to point out that finding a specific answer that will serve you all through your lifetime isn’t possible.
This question constantly ushers in a lot of revaluation and adjustment as we journey through life. So if you are currently in a confusing, trying and unclear phase do not be too hard on yourself.
Even now, I haven’t found all the answers to this but I have made great progress and I am no longer confused about what I want to do with my life.
However, my journey into finding those answers is what you are going to find in this article and yes, you’re going to find this very helpful!
The question “what should I do with my life” is like a crossroad with many pathways. It leaves you with a lot of options.
I need you to know that this question can only be answered by one person. You! I know right, if you had the answers you wouldn’t be here. However, this should be a reminder that what you decide to do with your life is completely in your hands.
In solving any problem or question, you’ll need to watch out for clues, pointers, and anything that can help you solve that problem. I strongly believe that most problems usually comes with answers and those answers are usually revealed in tiny clues hidden around the problem.
When I began the journey of figuring out what I should do with my life, I began by taking note of certain clues and suggestions that became a sort of guide that helped me get to this point.
Those clues propelled me into finding the answers that I needed! The first and most crucial sign was looking out for the clues that my life needed improvement and drastic changes. I have created a detailed article that will inform you of the right pointers and indicators that you need to implement positive changes to your life.
So let’s dive right in. Endeavor to take your notes, share and hold on to important points and tips that will be exposed.
1. Live For Something; Purpose
All have a purpose in life, and when you find yours you will recognize it. -Catherine Pulsifer
I never got to meet Catherine Pulsifer but I completely agree with what she said. I believe that everything and everyone that exists on Earth today exists for a reason. Your purpose as a person is that reason.
Like I said earlier, the question, “what should I do with my life?” Is a crossroad with many pathways. If there’s anything you shouldn’t leave this Earth without doing, it’s finding your purpose and fulfilling it.
Knowing and taking steps in fulfilling that purpose adds value to you. It makes you feel whole, fulfilled, and satisfied. The beauty of living is getting to that point where you know you lived for something, after all, the value of a man’s life is in what he lived and died for!
The people we love and celebrate today all went in search of their purpose and when they found it, they did not stop there. They went on to pay the price to be able to live that purpose.
One of the reasons why you should thrive to find and fulfill your purpose is because a purpose gives you reasons to live. It gives you reasons to fight. Reasons to be strong. Reasons to do and become better. It gives you reasons to grow!
Buried deep within us is a desire to live for a glorious cause. You must explore and exploit this desire by self-improvement and development in order to fulfill that purpose.
Lastly, keep this in mind, the day you find your purpose, is the day that you begin to truly live. If you are struggling to find your purpose, I have created a simple guide on how to find your life purpose and create meaning for yourself.
2. Create And Maintain Valuable Relationships
Almost everyone should be familiar with this sentence, “No one is an island.” Humans are social beings by default and design. Interaction with one another is not just unavoidable but also a primary item for growth either personal or communal.
I have enjoyed the benefits that come with having valuable relationships. The relationships I speak of in this context is beyond just the romantic setting.
I’m talking about friendships, sibling to sibling relationships, Employee to Employer relationships, and relationships with people generally. One of the things you must ensure you do with your life is to intentionally create valuable relationships.
Sometimes, step out of your comfort zone. Send a message to an old college friend. Try chatting with a stranger. Offer help to a sibling or spend more time with your parents.
Technology has even made it easier to have great relationships with people without meeting them in person. Apps like Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp exist for this purpose.
I have tons of good friends on WhatsApp and communicating with them always leaves me better than ever. Never forget that the value of great relationships can never be fully overemphasized. Never forget.
If you are an introvert by nature or find it difficult to socialize and associate with people here is a proper guide on how to make new friends, network, and socialize even as an adult.
3. Take Advantage Of Your Passions
Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” -Oprah Winfrey
A passion is anything that you have intense feelings of enthusiasm or compelling desire for. I want you to take note of everything that you might be passionate about.
Is it music? Or do you love cooking a lot? Do you enjoy writing and journalling or you derive pleasure from cosplay and acting? Answering these questions will show you how to hone and harness the power of your passions.
For example, I am passionate about a lot of things, one of which is writing. I began writing poetry and short stories from my late teens. The more I practiced and researched about the art, the better I grew at it.
Today, I have a blog on a variety of interesting topics with millions of readers all around the globe with my articles. All I did was take advantage of my passion for writing and now, I just enjoy the benefits!
Another interesting example remains the story of a famous British woman named Florence Nightingale. What should I do for a living? Florence was one of the few people who found the answer to that question by following her passion. Let’s look at her story.
Florence came from a very wealthy and notable family in Britain. From an early age, she was very passionate about philanthropy and would minister to ill or poor people from the village near her family estate in Italy. By the time she was 16 years old, Florence was fully convinced that she was meant to be a nurse. She believed that it was her calling.
Soon enough, she declared her desire to become a full-time nurse to her parents. However, her parents kicked against the idea as it was against the norms for the daughter of a well-to-do family to become a nurse.
The young lass being strong-willed, rebelled against her parents and in 1844, Nightingale enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserwerth, Germany. Florence faced a lot of challenges but still, she prevailed and became one of the most impactful nurses in medical history. You can achieve the same results with the aid of your passions.
Let’s assume I were in your shoes right now, thinking to myself, “hmm, what should I do with my life?” Here’s what any wise person will tell you. Make the best use of your passion!
One of the disadvantages of not taking harnessing your passion for a thing is that you might never experience the things you might be able to do with that passion.
If I did not harness my writing skills, you wouldn’t be reading this article. In fact, this article would not exist. All the possibilities that could be unleashed through your passion would have been locked up and stuck forever.
So if you’re looking for answers to this question; “what should I do with my life?” This is definitely one of them! Take note of what your passions are and begin to develop skills in those areas.
For example, if you’re passionate about dancing, you can begin to attend dance classes, read books or watch videos about dancing and practice a lot. This is the way to groom your passion in anything by consistency.
Ensure that one of the things, you must do with your life is to ensure that you nurture and use your passion for the greater good. You can also check out our article on how to find your passion and live a more fulfilling life.
4. Learn Every Day
What should I do with my life? One of those things you should do is to imbibe the culture of learning. Learning is instrumental to the survival and growth of any person.
Because of how fast knowledge is in progression and increase, anyone who does not learn consistently is bound to get left behind in the schemes of life.
Due to the availability of the internet, it is easier for you to have easy access to diverse forms of materials that can make learning a faster and more pleasant experience.
Everything from apps to online platforms has been stocked with knowledge on almost all fields of human knowledge. Through the consistent habit of learning, you can improve in anything you do. You can become more skillful, productive, and enlightened through learning over time.
I personally found and developed this habit when I chose to become intentional about answering the questions that plagued around, “what should I do with my life?
Every night, I researched about anything that made me curious even if it wasn’t related to my fields of work and interest. So as long as it sparked my curiosity, it was enough for me to want to know and learn more about it.
Develop a culture of finishing different materials, (books, videos, podcasts, and audiobooks) weekly. Apart from the fact that it makes you smarter, it makes you better prepared to face challenges.
If you can, join groups and organizations where learning of all forms is encouraged. It will do you a whole lot of good.
5. Work Hard And Work Smart
A friend once asked me. “What should I do with my life in such a way that I’d end up as a successful entrepreneur?”
What I told him is the same thing I’m going to tell you. Work hard and work smart. Most people do not know the difference.
What makes the difference between the two is the competent use of resources and opportunities in addition to the use of Discernment. There’s a point where hard work isn’t really smart.
Working hard requires you burning the midnight oil, making sacrifices, and all to achieve your goals.
However, working smart is working to achieve more with less, taking advantage of opportunities to get more results and growth towards expertise. If you know how to work hard but not how to work smart, you’ll still yield little results.
Let me give a clear example. We’re going to assume that we have two farmers who are given two plots of land of equal size to plant and reap maize cobs.
Farmer A gets to work with his hoe and Cutlass. Now, he’s putting in a lot of effort and he’s doing a great job. However, it takes him 3 weeks to weed the land and plant his seeds.
Farmer B comes in with his tractors and levels the whole land in a day and by the end of the week, all his seeds have been planted. What made the difference?
Smart work! Farmer B was smart enough to get pieces of equipment that would require less effort from him yet get the job done faster and better while Farmer A used more of his efforts instead of machines and so spent more time and energy trying to fix what a machine could do in a day.
Your ability to know how to balance hard work and smart work will help you yield more results in your life. So one of the things you should do with your life is to learn to achieve more with less effort. It will help you reduce costs and cut off the unnecessary waste of resources.
6. Think And Dream Big!
You can only achieve what your mind has conceived. Our thoughts are the channels by which ideas can flow and gain expression for successful execution.
I learned to always think big in whatever I do and I’ll advise you do the same. Learning to think and dream big will help you spot your challenges before they even arrive.
By thinking big, you can harness your imagination and birth mind-blowing ideas which when developed and implemented will bring great results.
What should I do with my life? Your answers to this question will be largely influenced by your thoughts about your future and your decisions will also revolve around those thoughts.
Consistently make efforts to bring in the best of your thought and imaginative capacity into anything that will proceed from you be it a personal or group project.
Your thoughts are a reflection of your mindset and idealogy patterns. So, once you begin to think and your ideas/thoughts do not look impossible enough for you to achieve, then they are not big enough. The bigger your imagination, the more you can achieve and get done.
No matter what happens, always ensure that you cross-check and work on your mindsets. Remove or eliminate faulty or toxic mentalities that will not help you grow and develop into the person you should be.
7. Try New Things: Travel, Eat Different Food Or Meet New People
If there’s anything that should fit into the answers to that question; “what should I do with my life?” Then it’s this one. Life is so beautiful and there’s a lot to know, see, feel and experience.
Do not be afraid to take new steps and to try new things. Part of the things that make life beautiful is in enjoying the thrill that comes with doing something for the first time.
It could be tasting a foreign dish or learning to skateboard or even traveling to a place you’ve never been before.
The amazing thing about these experiences is that they have a way of changing our views and ideologies about life, people, and activities that exist.
In fact, trying new things helps you develop a personal opinion about that thing or activity. It does serious damage to your ignorance about a subject matter thereby increasing your self-value and worth.
You might never know what it feels like to fall through a cloud until you go skydiving just the same way, you might never know that hamburgers are delicious until you have a taste.
When you begin to check out things in your “what should I do with my life list,” ensure that you make this a part of that list. You aren’t going to live forever so make intentional efforts to experience something new every day!
8. Be Impactful
You don’t have to be a very wealthy or famous person before you can make a little positive change in the lives of people.
Mother Theresa wasn’t a famous person but her impact on the lives of people brought her Fame and honor. You can be impactful in very simple and sincere ways.
Most times, we have nothing to give back to this world. The only gift we can give is making sure that our presence here brings positive changes to the world.
I have a crazy habit that I indulge in once in a while. When I meet new people or strangers, I sometimes write poetry, encouraging or inspiring words for them or about them. I believe that it is delightful for people to read beautiful, kind, and soothing words.
You can imagine the smiles that come on their faces when a total stranger says kind words to them. Like it or not, not everyone will appreciate your kind gestures but don’t let it stop you.
Make sure that at least once a week, you become the reason why someone gets better, happier, or smiles more.
I’ll talk about three simple and easy ways that you can be impactful to the people around you.
Feed A Person
Unfortunately, according to the USDA, 3.1 million households headed by single mothers are at risk of hunger. I know you might feel like helping out a neighbor with some food might not be a big difference against a number like that but it does make a difference. At least, ensure that twice a week, someone doesn’t go to bed hungry because you helped out.
Become A Mentor
You might not be an expert in your field but believe me, someone out there would be grateful to learn from you. Your best skills and talents will be of no value if it doesn’t bring any form of positive change to the world.
Teaching a child about what you know about music might be enough of a push to get that child into doing meaningful things with he/her life.
To be a mentor only requires that you attempt to make the best out of a growing ability. If you’ve any skills that you can teach, try helping someone else who’s interested in that field grow in their knowledge of it.
Do A Good Deed
A little act of kindness can go a long way in helping a person. There are countless ways of showing kindness in small yet meaningful ways. It might be by helping the elderly clean up their homes.
You can offer to get someone a drink at work or buy lunch for a kid at school. You don’t have to know the person. Little acts like this are one of the easiest ways to ensure that we make a difference no matter how small it is. What should I do with my life? This is one of them but first I’ll share an experience.
Once I went grocery shopping and there, I met a woman who had bought so much and she was having a hard time trying to put them in her car. Seeing her discomfort and struggle, I decided to help out.
She was an elderly lady so she thanked me profusely. I offered to help her throughout her stay in the supermarket because I didn’t come with a long list. She was delighted. By the time, we were done, she couldn’t thank me enough.
She offered to give me a ride home which I accepted. While she drove, I noticed that she was going the same way as mine. Soon she turned out to be a neighbor who I had never met.
That single act of kindness created a valuable relationship between us and I was delighted I helped out in the smallest way.
Make efforts to become the reason why people can smile in these times. No matter how little it seems, just make efforts to help.
9. Take Responsibility
One thing I discovered early was that no one loves taking responsibility and it remains one of the reasons why the world seems to be going from bad to worse.
I am the first child of my family so the word “responsibility” is something that I get to hear often. Taking responsibility means taking charge and admitting to be the driving force behind the success or failure of a thing.
I won’t lie, being responsible can be quite difficult but it affords you the opportunity to making a difference and ensuring that things can get done perfectly. Several times, I’d get a tongue lashing for the mistakes my siblings made because my parents expected me to handle the situation and lead better.
Being responsible is one of the things every person should do with he/her life. It comes with a load of work and advantages. The advantages? It makes you a smarter and more effective person. If you’re a responsible person, most people will trust you to get the job done especially when you’re also talented or skillful.
You can be responsible in four simple ways;
- Solve problems without being asked to.
- Take up the challenge of being a leader.
- Be accountable for your action and decisions including the mistakes and success that comes with it.
- Be effective in any environment.
The question of “what should I do with my life?” Is one that only a responsible person can truly answer. It begins with questioning your existence and choosing to make the most and the best out of it. If that’s not being responsible, then I don’t know what else is.
Also, another thing you should do with your life is to expose yourself to certain environments and materials. When I say environments, I am not referring to a physical location alone.
It could be a Facebook group, a resourceful or valuable community, or even a new book. Yes, through books or written materials, we can travel and explore the realms that exist in the mind of that author.
One of such materials that I’d love to recommend to you is our very own Goal Chaser, this productive planner has changed my mentality, productivity, and efficiency about a lot of things and helped me improve daily. You can check out the planner here.
It is important that you note and never forget that the answers to the question; “what should I do with my life?” Lies in your hands. What you decide to do with your life is completely dependent on your decision to be consistent, determined, and unwavering in the face of challenges
Remember that no one else is going to make that decision. No one else is going to take those steps for you! It’s all depends on you. You are the most important factor in all your decisions. Never forget that.
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