Hi today I'm gonna talk about how to
figure out what you want to do in life
I'm Dr. Tracey Marks, a psychiatrist and
on this channel I talk about mental
health education and self-improvement. I
post videos every Wednesday so if you
don't want to miss one click subscribe.
You only get one life and it's only
natural that you want to make the best
of it. You may be on the launch pad of
deciding what career choice to make or
you may have spent a lot of time in a
career and you need to pivot. So let's
look at 7 ways to identify how to know
what to do with your life. Number one:
determine how hard you're willing to
work. For example, if you want to make
millions, it's probably going to take a
tremendous amount of work. People don't
make millions just working 9 to 5. They
just don't. So do you have a lot of
hobbies that you like to engage in or
like to spend evenings at home with your
family and friends? How much time are you
willing to commit to your purpose? You'll
have to make sure that what you think
you want to do matches up with your time
availability. Number 2: make a list of
your values and this is a good starting
point. Someone who values security and
success will have a different life
purpose than someone who puts family and
friends and fun as priorities and not
that there's anything wrong with those
priorities, but many people aren't aware
of their values because they just never
really thought about it. So make a list
of every value you have and prioritize
your list placing the most important
values at the top so what you want to do
with your life should support your
values.
Number 3: think about your past.
What have you enjoyed doing in the past?
What did you find fun and exciting? And
also you learn from your mistakes. What
kinds of things have you done that you
didn't like? Especially think about the
settings that you didn't like. If you had
a job you hated, what about it did you
hate? Was it the people? Was it the
industry? Large corporation versus
start-up? Government versus public work?
Really zone in on the unique qualities
of a situation that you can use to cross
off your list for the future. For example
if you hated your last job because of
the people, you can find those same kind
of people in the next setting. So putting
nice people at the top of your list is
not a good guide for finding your
purpose. Number 4: what are your current
interests? What are you curious about?
What would you like to spend your time
learning and doing? If money were no
object and you didn't need to work like
you've won the lottery or something what
would you like to do to keep yourself
busy all day? You might say I'd like to
shoot pool and fish. Ok
let's bring it back to a life where you
do have to work. If you love those things
that much that you could do them all day
every day
then what about something in those
industries that pays money like
commercial fisherman or owning a fishing,
a sports fishing store. Same thing with
billiards - maybe owning a billiard store
or playing pool professionally. Those are
just some examples of how to think
through this. Number 5: what are your
strengths? In number 4 we looked at
things that you'd like to do, but in this
one you're looking at things that you're
already good at. So are you an excellent
communicator? Are you a good writer, an
artist or a techy person?
Could you build those strengths further
and then apply them to your life in a
meaningful way? Number six: how can you
best contribute to the world? By thinking
about this you take your interest and
your skills and apply a meaningful
filter to it. So does what you want to do
have meaning beyond you? It doesn't have
to be peace in our times, unless you just
want it to be that epic. But suppose you
love skateboarding and and you like
doing it competitively. How does this
contribute to the world? It provides
entertainment for people. We all need
rest and relaxation and spectator sports
give people a lot of pleasure. So that's
an example of how you could think about
that. Number seven: what do you not like
to do? We brought up what you haven't
liked in the past, but this point focuses
on your general dislikes. So maybe you
hate the office environment or you don't
like working on teams or you prefer to
work independently with minimal
supervision. Use these broad dislikes to
rule out settings especially like rule
out work settings or work styles and
even industries that wouldn't be a good
fit for you. So mull over these things.
Write them down. Don't just move these
thoughts around in your head. It helps to
actually look at these things on paper
then get feedback from a friend or
someone who you trust and who knows you.
A close friend may easily tell you oh I
can't see you doing this or you've never
liked that and that's insightful for you
alright that's it.
Go find your purpose. Thanks for watching.