Four Quick Questions To Figure Out What You Should Do With Your Life
So, you have no clue what you’re doing.
Welcome to the club. It’s nice here. Lots of members. Bit overcrowded, if I’m being honest.
We know there are plenty of reasons to stay in a job. We’ve all done it. Your family, partners or your kids depend on you. You have friends to impress. You have perceived ideas of who we want to be. You have reasons to be scared of straying.
But who do you really want to be?
1. Work backwards
Where do you want to be in 5 years time? Dream big. Imagine who you work for, what your role is and what your workspace looks like. Once you know exactly where you want to be it’s easier to figure out how you’ll actually get there. Now reverse engineer it. Map out the exact steps you need to take to make your dream happen and create a plan to start putting it into action.
2. Focus on a lifestyle, not a job title
What do you want your days to be like? It’s easy to chase a certain job title but it’s another thing to know what kind of life this job will create. Instead, focus on the kind of life you want to live; do you like working outdoors or indoors? Can you handle sitting in traffic? Are you open to travel? Do you need to pick up your kids? Figuring out your dream lifestyle makes sure you actually end up with a life you love, not just a cool sounding job. At the end of the day, it’s you who has to actually do the job every day. Not the people you’re trying to impress.
3. Watch your habits
What do you do when you have free time? Think back to the last thing that made you forget to eat. If there’s anything in your life that makes you consistently lose track of time, take note of it. Whether it’s fixing cars or taking photos, we all have a ‘thing’ we can’t wait to do as soon as we have a bit of spare time to ourselves.
Next, take some time to think about why you love doing that task. Sure, video games are a common passion but why do people love playing them? Maybe you love the competitiveness, design, strategy or making improvements. Figure out what keeps you coming back to it.
4. When it’s all said and done
What do you want to be known for? We don’t like to think about death because death is pretty scary. But it’s scary for a reason. The thought of being remembered negatively or worse not at all is pretty hard to swallow. How will you make a difference to the world? Whether you end up impacting two people or two million, thinking about the legacy you want to leave is an easy way to figure out what characteristics are important to you. Build your life around these values.
Next steps:
- Our JBA platform provides an intuitive self-discovery analysis tool to make knowing your path even easier. Click here to get started.
- Make a top 5 list of job options based on your answers above. Pick your favourite and plan out step by step what you would need to do to get there and start making actions (today) towards completing one of them.
- Volunteer. It’s a great way to get a feel for the role before you make the leap. The exciting thing about finding out what you love is that you have to actually go out and try things. It’s the best and most effective way of knowing exactly how you’ll feel doing that each and every day.
Our platform is designed for getting our users into new career opportunities that suit their skills and passions. Don’t have the right skills? You can learn them right within the platform. Be who you want to be.
