Brief 014: What if you don’t know what you want to do yet?

First, breathe. 

You don’t need to know your entire career before choosing what to study. Sometimes the pressure to find “the one thing” makes the decision even harder.

Instead, start broader.

Ask:
What am I curious about?
What kinds of problems interest me?
Do I enjoy working with people, numbers, ideas, technology, tools or creative work?
Do I prefer building things, explaining things, analysing things, organising things or helping people?

Then look for fields, not job titles. You don’t have to know that you want to become a particular job. You might simply discover that you’re interested in:

• health.
• business.
• technology.
• law.
• design.
• education.
• media.
• finance.

That’s enough to start exploring. Then investigate, read about the field, talk to people who work in it, take a short course, try a small project, volunteer, watch what professionals actually do, and pay attention to your reaction.

Do you want to know more?

That’s useful information, because sometimes clarity doesn’t come from sitting down and thinking harder. It comes from trying things.

And remember: choosing a field isn’t necessarily choosing your entire life. It’s choosing a direction you can explore. You can learn more, change your mind and take another road later.

My question here is:
What if you stopped asking: “What do I want to do for the rest of my life?”
and asked: “What would I be interested in exploring next?”

Maybe that’s enough direction for now.