What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?
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What do you want to do with your life? It’s a question almost everyone asks themselves. It’s also a question I don’t believe you should bother asking in the first place.
“I don’t know what I want to do in life, all I know is that it isn’t this.”
That was the sentiment a friend reflected to me. She’s in her mid-twenties, smart, savvy and hard working. But she is still stuck working jobs that don’t hover much beyond minimum wage. Every year, she tells me, that she applies for Universities, but never goes through with it. Why? Because she can’t answer that question.
Passion Evolves
I worry a lot of people fall into the same trap. The trap of believing that they need to make big life decisions before they can start doing anything. The trap that you need to be born with a passion. And the lie that being able to combine your interests with a profession is easy.
When people ask me what I’m going to be doing in five or ten years, I usually tell them I’m going to be an entrepreneur. “Oh. What’s your business going to be?” I have reason to believe this internet business could be it. Between revenues and freelance work I’m expecting to make about ten thousand dollars this year. Concentrated effort for the next four or five years could definitely make this a livable income.
But I don’t usually say that. Because it isn’t the point. In all honesty, I have no idea where I am going to be in a decade. My track record shows that my passions have evolved considerably, even over the last couple years.
Ben Casnocha, the 19-year old CEO of Comcate, shows how his passion didn’t start with a flash of insight, in the book My Start Up Life
“It didn’t start with a dream. It didn’t start with in a garage. It didn’t even start with an innovative epiphany, which are perhaps entrepreneurs’ most overplayed recollections.” He continues, relating the story of Jerry Kaplan’s epiphany moment in Kaplan’s book, Start Up. To which Ben adds, “I wish my epiphany were as primal. It wasn’t, and most aren’t.” [emphasis mine]
As Ben shares his story of being a teenage CEO, it becomes clear that his passion evolved. There were interests in entrepreneurship and making a difference. But from these interests, he made smaller steps, each building a passion. I don’t believe his journey ever started with deciding what he wanted to do with his life.
Replace Decision with Curiosity
Instead of making definite decisions about a career path, I believe you should get curious. Get curious about the way the world works. Notice your own interests and find small ways you can exercise passion in something. Even if you can’t find a way to make money off of it yet.
The bridge from passion to money-maker can’t be made hastily. Interests often get discarded because they cannot be immediately relayed into a source of income. And therefore aren’t as important as work that does.
Blogging is a great example. I know many bloggers who want to go pro. They want to take the interest they have and turn it into a passionate source of income. But blogging isn’t easy. Even the most rapid successes I’ve seen, took over a year before the author could claim blogging as more than a hobby. And those were due to writing talent, luck and an incredible amount of work.
Patience is a necessary ingredient in evolving a passion. But even more, you need to be open to other possibilities.
Interest to Income Isn’t a Straight Path
80% of new businesses fail in the first five years. But more interesting, is that of the 20% that succeeded, most didn’t do so in the way they had expected to.
Before setting up his immensely popular website, Steve Pavlina believed he would make most his revenue through products and workshops. But close to five years later, he makes all of it from advertising and affiliate sales. A revenue prospect he downplayed when making his business plan.
Similarly, I don’t believe that most people’s passions follow a straight path. Scott Adams began with a degree in economics and a position in a bank and now he is the successful cartoonist who created Dilbert.
Seven Steps to Evolving a Passion… and Making it Work
Step One - Gather Sparks of Curiosity
Don’t have an inferno of passion driving your actions yet? Don’t worry about it. Most people I know don’t. And if you are under thirty, you are probably in the overwhelming majority.
The first steps is to simply invest your energy into whims. Those little sparks of interest where you don’t know enough to make them a passion. Ben Casnocha calls this seeking randomness. For me, it has been a process of finding my intuition and using it to make small investments in things that are potentially interesting.
This means reading different books, taking on different activities and meeting different people. Broad associations gives a lot of chances to stumble on a passion that can work.
Step Two: Fan the Flames of Interest
After exposing yourself to a lot of randomness, you need to cultivate the successes. Build upon the little sparks of interest that come by your life. If you read a book about physics and like the subject, try taking a physics class. If you enjoy some basic programming try a small software project.
Step Three: Cut Out Distractions
Cultivating whims and exploring new passions requires time. One of the reasons I’ve placed such an emphasis on productivity with myself, is that without it I couldn’t explore these options.
If your interests are genuine and worth exploring, it shouldn’t be too difficult to eliminate the non-essentials. Distractions such as television, excess internet usage and video games only take a bit of conditioning to free up. The hard part is reallocating time you don’t believe is yours.
Step Four: Living Minimally
If you already have a job you aren’t passionate about, work only as much as you need to keep going. Valid passions need time to grow into income generating skills.
I don’t suggest becoming a starving artist and racking up huge debts. But avoid expanding your life to fit a bigger and bigger paycheck if you aren’t living your passion. Otherwise you simply trap yourself into a life that is comfortable, but otherwise dead.
Leo Babauta, author of ZenHabits is a great example of this. With six kids, freelancing work and another job to help support his family he found ways to cut expenses and focus on his passion. His website has quickly grown to become incredibly popular, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a stable source of income for him in a few years. Live minimally, and avoid getting trapped into a comfortable, but unsatisfying, life.
Step Five: Make a Passion that Creates Value
If you have a skill that has creates social value, you can make money through almost any medium. Monetizing a passion takes skill, as any entrepreneur can tell you, but without providing legitimate value it is impossible.
You need to transform your developing passions into a skill that can fill human needs. Some passions are easy to translate. An interest in computers could allow you to become a software designer. Others are more difficult. A passion for poetry, may be more difficult to meet a specific human need.
Step Six: Find a Way to Monetize That Value
Once you have the ability to create social value, you need to turn that into a repeatable process for gaining income. This could be in the form of a job. As a programmer you could get hired by Google. Or, it could lead to becoming a freelancer or an entrepreneur.
Monetizing value isn’t easy. It requires that you learn how to market, sell yourself, and find ways to connect human needs. Whether you intend to work in a job or own a business makes no difference. You are the CEO of your life, so you need to know how to connect your passions with serving other people.
Step Seven: Go Back to Step One
Describing this process in steps is misleading. It implies that there is a destination. There is no destination. The process of following whims, cultivating passions, turning them into valuable skills and then finally earning revenue from them is lifelong. I have some passions that are in steps one and two. This blog is in the midst of step six. In ten years I may have gone through them all with a completely different passion.
Not all your passions will or can finish the sixth step. But as persistent as the myth you need to decide what you want to do with your life, is the myth you can only have one passion. I’m at a point where cultivating passions has meant I have too many options. Too many possible paths that could lead to enjoyable and fulfilling careers. Don’t obsess over one failed attempt.
What do you want to do with your life?
Your life doesn’t need to go through a predictable story arc. It doesn’t have to start with a dream, follow through hard work and end up in a nice home with four bedrooms. Instead it can twist and travel. You don’t have to know the final answer, you just need to act on the next step.
Entrepreneur » Entrepreneur July 29, 2007 3:26 pm said,
July 29, 2007 at 12:31 pm
[…] What Do You Want to Do With Your Life? When people ask me what I?m going to be doing in five or ten years, I usually tell them I?m going to be an entrepreneur. ?Oh. What?s your business going to be?? I have reason to believe this internet business could be it. … […]
Ed said,
July 29, 2007 at 12:38 pm
It’s getting there Scott! Tweaks are working… Easy on the eyes… I’ll post if I see where I can help… but it looks like you’re doing fine on your own!
Scott Young said,
July 29, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Thanks Ed. I’ll try to keep tweaking it. I may have to throw in the towel on a few of the minor browsers (last time I checked IE and FF make up at least 99% of my visitors) but not without a fight.
-Scott
Today is that Day said,
July 29, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Scott,
This is an awesome post, and I love what you said about not having to choose just one passion.
When I advise people on following their bliss, it is to do just that - go with whatever is fun for you. Unless you only enjoy one thing, then you have lots of options!
- Aaron
Scott Young said,
July 29, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Thanks Aaron!
Jeff Seely said,
July 29, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Scott,
A couple weeks ago I finally decided to take the question What Should I Do With My Life? and conquer it face on. I graduate college in a year, I have to make a decision about grad school — and quite frankly, my interests/passions (if you can call them passions) are too diverse and often unstable/temporary to really give myself a clear-shot answer.
In part, I think I have too much positive energy to let myself just go with the flow. I really feel like there’s something out there that I can really take advantage of, but if I don’t take this golden opportunity to find it, then I might get “stuck” doing something else for a while.
I’ve read through books like Is Your Genius at Work? and read articles like this: http://www.fastcompany.com/online/66/mylife.html
— trying to take the advice to heart.
Overall, exploring The Big Question has been an exciting process for me. But there’s still that uncomfortable frustration that The Question might not be clearly answerable. I think your article gives a refreshing perspective that I’ve been missing in my recent search. Thanks.
Jeff
Maxine said,
July 29, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Great post, Scott.
I think it’s very timely in this age of the ‘quarter-life crisis’.
As a Gen-X/Yer myself, I think people have transferred their unrealistic, romantic notions of ‘finding their soulmate’ to ‘finding their soul purpose’.
People no longer expect to meet their soulmate’s eyes across a crowded room and instantly know that that person is THE ONE but they seem to expect to have a sudden epiphany about what their life purpose is.
When the more mundane truth is that both finding a soul-mate and finding a soul purpose takes consistent effort; putting yourself out there, being open to new experiences, giving people (or hobbies) a try to see if the spark can be something more…
And maintaining the spark takes more effort; there are always skills that could be improved to make things better and there will also be hard times - moments of boredom & resentment that must be worked through.
And sometimes, you change and your soulmate or soul purpose no longer fits. Life is long after all, so it is conceivable that one will have more than a few of each.
I myself have more than 1 passion but I’m contented to know that there are some I can run in parellel and some that can wait for later (I do not run my relationships this way though).
I think the meaning of life is to search for the meaning of life. I think life is the process of discovering your purpose so it’s best to enjoy the ride rather than wanting the payoff *right now*.
Theresa said,
July 29, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Hi Scott! I discovered this network about a week ago doing some research and, as timing is always perfect, found your post today.
Great job! In fact, this is the very thing my 16 year old and I have been discussing. Life is not linear, unless you make it linear. Be open to new things, be willing to give things a go, apply energy and inspiration if the shoe fits, and see what evolves!
He and I actually looked at your post together. If, at a minimum, it serves to say, “See you are not alone!” you’ve done your job
Thank you!
Peter said,
July 29, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Great post Scott. Getting curious about life is one of the major changes I have made in the past year and it is making all the difference….
Portfolio Life .net » Blog Archive » Your life is… about… um, what? said,
July 29, 2007 at 8:08 pm
[…] What Do You Want to Do With Your Life? Scott H Young, blog entry July 29, 2007 What do you want to do with your life? It’s a question almost everyone asks themselves. It’s also a question I don’t believe you should bother asking in the first place…. […]
Scott Young said,
July 30, 2007 at 6:14 am
Great comments everyone!
Life’s Purpose « Inspiration said,
July 30, 2007 at 11:04 am
[…] Wow, things have just been too hectic lately! I am learning so many new things at a rapid pace that I hardly get time to take just relax and meditate on it all, what to say blog about it. But I need to keep tab with these things so I must bring myself to earth and keep note. Scott Young has and interesting blog entry about ‘What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?’ […]
Brenton Scott said,
July 30, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Great Post Scott, I was stuck in that place where I continually asked myself that question and always came up with the same answer: I don’t know, but I DO know this isn’t what I want.
Been mulling over leaving home and moving 1600km (+-1400 miles) away on a whim. Since reading this, I decided that it’s worth a shot and atleast it keeps me away from my parents, whom loves me, but has a bad habit of trying to help me in things I don’t need help in and refusing to help me in those I do.
I just decided I wanted to live my life and whatever I get would be mine, failures or wins, without having my parents pat themselves on the back for ‘helping’ me get there. So Thanks Scott, you helped me more than you can ever know.
Dave Carlson said,
July 30, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Another great post, Scott. You continue to amaze me with how you can put together so many interesting and well-thought-out posts so prolifically. I especially like the part about how the 20% of companies that last for five years often achieve success in a different way than they imagined. I think that’s one of the oft-overlooked aspects of entrepreneurship.
Leo from ZenHabits sent out an email about a month ago to some of his 30-day Challenge members, asking them if they would be interested in donating money so that he could devote himself full-time to his blog. I think he may be very close to sustainability already.
P.S. In the “Leave a Comment” area, the word URL shows up as URl with a lowercase L. Just wanted to let you know. I like the new design, though. Did you use any outside help, or did you create the design yourself? What program(s) did you use to create the design? I’m thinking of creating a custom design for my blog, as well.
Keep up the good work!
Scott Young said,
July 30, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Dave,
I’m glad for the kind words.
As for the design, I did it all myself (although some have claimed this was a mistake!)
I used Notepad++ to do the programming of CSS and PHP and GIMP to do all the image work. It isn’t for the faint of heart.
Brenton,
Good luck to you on your journey!
-Scott
Must Read Today - New Links (31 July 2007) « Ali Writes Here! said,
July 31, 2007 at 5:13 am
[…] Misc. Google’s Number One UI Mistake What do you want to do with your life? Quotes for Software Engineers Best Business Novels You Can Read This Summer Balls and vase problem […]
Joe Perrin said,
August 2, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Another great post!
I’ve been lurking via RSS, reading your great content for a while now. I thought I better let you know that I really enjoy your stuff so you continue to do it. Please keep it up. I look forward to reading your posts .
In the spirit of cutting down on my internet time I pruned my RSS feeds in Google Reader from 350 down to 84. Your blog not only made the cut, it’s the first feed I read.
The reason I enjoy your content is because you dont seem to have a “know it all” attitude. I like how you present information in a way that states “Hey, I’m working though this life thing too!” I can relate.
I used to read Steve Pavlina’s sutff but his posts are REALLY long, and I get lost, confused and even bored. Don’t get me wrong he has some really great stuff, but a lot of it is too heavy.
Thanks for the uncomplicated “human” style of writing.
Joe.
Scott Young said,
August 2, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Thanks Joe. That means a lot.
There is a certain amount of arrogance that comes from writing down your ideas. I’m certainly not perfect, but I try to balance that with as much humility as possible. Because I am still trying to figure this life thing out!
I’m glad I made the top of the list. Although 84 feeds! I admire your fortitude. I only track 12 and I find 20 to be too time consuming.
-Scott
Joe Perrin said,
August 3, 2007 at 2:34 pm
If you dont mind me asking, what are the feeds you read?
Scott Young said,
August 3, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Joe,
Ben Casnocha’s Blog
Copyblogger
I Will Teach You To Be Rich
John Place Online
PersonalDevelopment.ie
ZenHabits
Steve Pavlina
The Optimized Life.com
4 Hour Workweek Blog
Seth Godin
Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams
Happiness Project
More recently I’ve been checking out:
How to have more social success - link provided by a reader.
Wise Bread - One of my fellow PBN.
—-
I also get a lot of articles independently through links from my blog network, so aside from ZenHabits and more recently WiseBread I get most of there best articles through e-mail so I don’t subscribe to the entire thing.
I don’t even subscribe to lifehack.org of which I write about 8 articles per month. I’ve found the posting rate is just too high for me to follow effectively so I had to drop it.
-Scott
marenda said,
August 4, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Awesome Scott! you hit it on the head curiosity and passion are where it begins. Sometimes people do fall in “the trap” for many reasons such as control freak-itis, fear, and self limiting thinking. what you are talking about should be common sense
lol but its really outside the box thinking…we are taught to give some cookie cutter answer when asked what we want to do with our life or for our five year plan…most people shy away from the road less traveled and thats the road sparked by curiosity and passion and leads to self fulfillment and happiness
max night said,
August 13, 2007 at 2:13 pm
what do i want to do with my life? medical profession. period. im very interested in the human body. I also think that i will be a painter in my spare time and if that becomes successful, ill become a painter.
Scott Young said,
August 13, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Max,
I’m glad you’ve come to such a resounding decision. The truth is that many people haven’t made up there minds so definitively. And if they have, it may be a compromise from what they feel are limited options. Just always be open to new avenues of exploration while pursuing your dreams!
-Scott
My Five Favourite Personal Development Blogs at the Moment said,
August 24, 2007 at 1:11 am
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Tom said,
September 9, 2007 at 5:55 am
This is a great way to look at it. I do not know what I want to do and it can be frustrating. Maybe its the way we are brought up. We are used to getting everything from food to entertainment more quickly than what our grandparents had to deal with and that translated into the career world means we have to choose our ideal jobs fast too.
Thanks for a new perspective that makes a lot of sense.
Douglas Woods said,
September 30, 2007 at 10:12 am
Not sure that I agree with the whole concept of ‘passion’. Passion may be great when we consider love, romance and relationships. Passion, though is essentially something that takes over a person. It leads them to do things which might not be in their best interests. Passion is also transient and that raises the question, what to do when the passion dies.
Scott Young said,
October 1, 2007 at 5:25 am
Douglas,
Passion = loving what you do. Without passion there seems to be very little reason for continuing existence. Obsession isn’t a good idea, but finding something you love to do is a must.
Quote of the Day : Stephen Shapiro said,
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January 18, 2008 at 12:54 pm
[…] What Do You Want to Do With Your Life? - A lot of people my age struggle with this question. I’m a believer that if you don’t have any good responses to this question, the answer isn’t to compromise with the best option you have; it’s to go find better options! […]
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January 19, 2008 at 9:45 am
[…] What Do You Want To Do With Your Life? | Scott Young A thought-provoking article from the Scott Young’s archives. He attempts to deconstruct the idea of passion, and, in doing so, provides some nice insight into what we value. […]
Scott H Young » Partying and Personal Development said,
January 21, 2008 at 10:01 am
[…] The solution to this problem is to work on that drive to create. Explore and experiment until you find something that fills you with passion, even if you can’t make a living off it immediately. From that point you can spend time building a career, business or income stream around that initial drive. (For more of my thoughts on building a passion, read my article: What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?) […]
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