I don't know what to do with my life: 6 strategies to have a great future

In Western societies, the stagnation of feeling in an existential crisis is very common. "I don't know what to do with my life" is a thought that appears frequently in psychotherapy consultations and that goes hand in hand with a discomfort that is difficult to describe.

The fact of not knowing how to guide the professional career gives rise to many other types of doubts, and this uncertainty accumulates until it is difficult to bear.

In this article we will see a series of tips on how to focus on a life project and develop it as long-term project to bring us stability, both in relation to the private and personal sphere and in our facet professional.

• Related article: "The 25 university majors with the greatest demand and future"

I don't know what to do with my professional life: how to fix it?

Life doesn't come with an instruction manual. If we add to that the fact that the work environment is changing and it is difficult to maintain a professional career That it always remains the same, it is frequent that people do not know very well what to spend their time on. The same can be said of stability in private life, which is largely related to what we do to support ourselves financially.

Now, the fact that it is relatively normal to meet people who do not know what to do with their life does not mean that this problem has no solution, or that it should be normalized, as if feeling the weight of that unknown were natural, expected. Let's see, then, what are the different facets of this psychological phenomenon and what we can do to solve it. In the first place we will see the keys necessary to create a life project to which to dedicate our time of work, and finally we will give the keys to reorient our lives beyond professions and trades.

1. Analyze your material conditions

This first step is essential to begin to raise a life project that has the potential to provide us with a minimum of stability over the years.

Being aware of our material and economic limitations helps us to lay a foundation only for our professional projects, given that in practically any option that occurs to us there is an objective expense, on the one hand, and an opportunity cost, for the other. The latter has to do with the opportunities we miss by being focused on a certain goal.

By the way, in this step we must also take into account the time we have. This is something that many times we overlook and that can lead us to spend a lot of resources in starting a trajectory to which we cannot dedicate enough hours per week.

2. Write down individual ideas

Those who think to themselves “I don't know what to do with my life”, in part, face a problem of a creative nature. Finding the most valuable ideas requires thinking about it, knowing new realities and, above all, commit to experimenting with these first sketches of what our life could be in the future.

So, in this phase we will give a creative answer to the problem. To do this, the important thing is not to let us forget anything, so it is necessary to always carry a small notebook with you to write down ideas as they arise.

3. Make a list of values

In this phase, you should make a small list of the values ​​to which you give more importance: write down about 5 or 6 concepts and sort them according to their priority.

• You may be interested: "The 10 types of values: principles that govern our lives"

4. Discard possible professional projects

In this phase, you should discard approximately two-thirds of the items in the list of ideas, taking into account take into account the degree of illusion they produce in you and the degree to which you think they conflict with your values.

What's more, you should also rely on the realistic criteria whether you have the means and the time to make you prosper in them.

When it comes to the concept of "prospering," consider what your expectations are in each case. In this way you will have a rough idea of ​​your degree of affinity with each project; if in one you need to achieve exceptional results to feel that it has been worth it surely it does not excite you as much as another option in which that feeling comes with much more results discreet.

5. Analyze your capabilities

In this phase where you have few options to choose from, consider your personal skills, those that are linked to your way of being and thinking.

With enough effort and work, you could surely manage to do well in practically any task (unless you have significant health problems), as long as your objective is not to be among the elite of the sector at a very broad territorial level. But despite this, it is not realistic to assume that you will be training day and night in order to prosper.

Therefore, make a table with your weaknesses and strengths, and think about how those characteristics fit in with the projects you have planned. You do not have to decide with the one that fits perfectly with your way of being if there is another option that you like more, but it will help you decide and think about the effort you should put into it.

6. Make up your mind and start as soon as possible

It is important that the time that passes between making the final decision and starting to put it into practice is as short as possible. The beginnings are always complicated, but once it's started, it doesn't cost as much. Don't self-sabotage!

How to orient your personal life towards an exciting goal

In this final section we will see tips and ideas for those who do not know what to do with their personal life. Whether it is the case of a person without work or someone who does not have financial or work problems but does not know what to do in his free time, there are a series of guidelines to follow. Let's see them.

1. Find a material sustenance

Finding an economic and material stability that reaches a minimum is essential to develop exciting life projects; If not, uncertainty will gradually erode our confidence in the idea that everything is worth it, since in a matter of a few days everything can change (And it is likely that this change for the worse will occur, if you do not have an economic cushion or external help). So you have to try to find a balance between the work invested in gaining autonomy and having free time.

2. Focus on a few goals

Look for goals to achieve and focus on one or two, but not in more. In this way you can commit to them, give them the time they deserve.

When looking for and selecting ideas, base yourself on the steps to follow that we saw in the previous section about finding ideas for a career, but this time don't limit yourself to labor.

3. Make friends and bond

Progress in personal development knows best if it is shared by others. Therefore, do not forget about others, do not break contact with them in order to dedicate effort to your projects, and make new contacts. The latter is also interesting to have access to new ideas, new environments with creative potential, etc.

4. Don't be obsessed with being original

The pretense of wanting to do something unique will only enslave you. Worry about doing something that fulfills you, not about creating something innovative, since nothing exists in isolation from what has already been created before.

Bibliographic references:

• Ventegodt, S.; Merrick, J.; Jørgen Andersen, N. (2003). "Quality of Life Theory III. Maslow Revisited ". TheScientificWorldJournal. Finland: Corpus Alienum Oy (3): 1050–1057.