#TheWhat

The biggest scariest question most people never answer…

What..the hell am I going to do with my life?

I was a sophomore in college and despite declaring a major I had no answer to that question. I felt like I was standing on the tracks with a train, two years away, approaching. I couldn’t move. I was doomed.

I didn’t know what let alone when, where, why and how.

Maybe I didn’t have to do anything? Someone would pick me. Give me a job, a few business cards and a list of tasks I needed to accomplish each day.

That’s kind of what happened. I was picked by Big Tobacco. I got the business cards and I completed the tasks with a minimal amount of enthusiasm. After the novelty wore off I grew to hate Philip Morris. I hated the products, the corporate double speak and the risk aversion built into the culture.

I decided to leave and with a fantastic friend’s help I made the first “what” decision in my life. I chose, what, I wanted to do. I wanted to start organizing adult sports leagues. With a clear vision of the what firmly in hand, answering the remaining 4 questions (WWWH) was easy.

I’m confident that Michelangelo’s toughest task wasn’t sculpting the David; it was deciding what to sculpt. Michael Jordan’s wasn’t playing basketball; it was deciding which sport to play.

When’s the last time you decided “the what” for yourself? Decided to dig your heels in and prepare for an ultra marathon.

Spend 30 minutes today and list five activities that you’d be happy to spend ten years doing. Somewhere in that list is your what. It’s not going to pick you, will you pick it?