I don’t know if you, like me, had really annoying friends at school who knew exactly what they wanted to be when they grew up….and then grew up to be exactly those things. There was Esther – who was a quiet considered girl, who was great at science and always wanted to be a doctor. Well here she is now several decades later – not just a GP, but head of a GP practice.
Or there was Jane – brilliant at languages who wanted to be a language teacher and now lives in the South of France where she teaches English as a foreign language (having spent years in various continental paces teaching German, French and English).
And then there were the rest of us. Had no bloody idea!
I mean, how are you supposed to know what you want to do when you grow up anyway? There is practically no careers advice at most schools, and most teachers have only ever been teachers, so are perhaps not totally equipped to suggest jobs in the world outside education. And anyway – there are jobs that exist today that did not exist when you and I were at school, or even when someone who is 25 was at school. And there will be jobs that exist in 10 years time that we can’t even imagine today.
The world is changing so fast.
And actually what you want to do with your life is a lot more (or it should be) than just the job you choose to do, or have to do. It is actually something we are rarely asked and never coached on as a child. What do you want to do with your life? Not what job do you think you could do – but what do you want to DO.
Do you want to travel as many places in the world as you can? Do you want to leave a legacy – write books, start a charity? Do you want to help people overcome challenges, or change their life, or deal with tragedy? Do you want to MEAN something to someone / to lots of people? Do you want to express your creativity – to create – invent, add beauty or practicality to the world. Do you want to nurture? Is your passion to care for others? Children? The Elderly? The Sick?
What is it the LIGHTS YOU UP. Because THAT right there, is what you should be doing.
And it is difficult to think like that sometimes isn’t it? I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up! No, but seriously, I have finally found the path I was always meant to be on – helping other WHYS men and women to Find Their Why and live a life of fulfilment. And I fell into this – almost by accident – if you believe in accident. I don’t. I think where I am now is where I was always meant to be and nothing is a co-incidence. But I wonder if I could have gotten here sooner with a bit of help.
What is really important in that phrase ‘what to do with my life’ is the word ‘MY’. Because this is your journey, your path. I want you to eliminate the word ‘should’ from your thinking. It’s not helpful. As in – ‘I should stay in my sales job as I will probably be promoted soon (even though I hate it)’ or ‘I should be an accountant because I am good at Maths’ or ‘I should be grateful to have this job – it earns me good money (even though I have no time to see my family)’.
You see, you only get one life (or if you get more, you aren’t living them yet – just this one), and so you mustn’t waste it doing something you don’t like because you are drifting and not looking at what you actually really want to do.
Now it is perfectly fine to do something as a stepping stone to get you where you want to be. If you want to achieve something and the only way you can see to fund that at the moment is to work in a job you don’t love, then maybe that’s OK. But maybe it would be useful to have a coach who can work with you to look at ALL the options to get where you want to go, because there is (so they say) more than one way to skin a cat. Though why you would want to do that is beyond me. I’m a dog person, but skinning a cat? That’s just wrong.
But before you can decide which steps to take, you need to know what you want to do. And that can be really tough to decide. Maybe no one has ever asked you. Perhaps you think it’s a selfish thing to think about. Possibly you never really gave it much thought, I mean you know what you DON’T want to do – but what you DO want to do….well that’s tricky.
And perhaps that is because you are trying to figure everything out.
You don’t need to figure it out on your own and you shouldn’t try to do it alone. Because this state of ‘not knowing what to do with my life’ applies to pretty much everybody (except maybe Jane and Esther) and can happen at any age and at different stages of our lives. Whether we are heading off to university, graduating, choosing our career path, recovering from heart break, being made redundant, or entering into retirement, there will be a point in our lives where we don’t know what to do.
Because this is such a big area for so many people, Marion and I have developed some tools that can help you establish exactly where you are now, and where you want to be. Watch out for the links over the next few weeks where you can find out – just by answering a few simple questions – what your life purpose is.
We use a system based on ancient wisdom and modern day science to help you, in the words of one of my mentors (yes I continue to grow by learning!) “to live the life you were born to live”. A system based on just your date, time & place of birth. A bit like a personality test but not one reliant on what side of the bed you got out of! Click HERE to find out more.
But for now remember what Oprah said “Do what you have to do with your life, until you can so what you want to do”
And to help you think about that a little more – I love Nietzsche’s quote below:-
“Look back upon your life and ask: What up to now have you truly loved, what has raised your soul, what ruled it and at the same time made you happy? Line up these objects of reverence before you, and see how they form a ladder on which you have so far climbed up toward your true self.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
And remember, what ever else you do, to Live, Love and Laugh everyday and continue to be YOU in your own unique way.
PS – If you can’t wait for the official announcement – email me on Cheryl@cheryl-chapman.com and ask for a link to the Life Direction Diamond – which will take you 2 minutes to complete and will wow you with the answers!