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

Planning a life project is always complicated. Let's take a look at some tips and recommendations.

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 often appears in psychotherapy consultations in psychotherapy consultations and goes hand in hand with a discomfort that is difficult to describe.

Not knowing how to orient one's professional career gives rise to many other types of doubts, and this uncertainty builds up until it becomes 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 a long-term project to bring us stability, both in the private and personal sphere as well as in our professional facet.

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 the work environment is changeable and it's hard to maintain a career path that stays the same, it is often that remains the same, people often don't know exactly where to spend their time. The same can be said of stability in private life, which is largely related to what we do to support ourselves financially.

However, the fact that it is relatively normal to find people who do not know what to do with their lives does not mean that this problem has no solution, or that it should be normalized, as if feeling the weight of this unknown was natural, expected. Let us see, then, what are the different facets of this psychological phenomenon and what we can do to solve it. First of all, we will look at the keys necessary to create a life project to which we can dedicate our working time, and finally we will give the keys to reorient our lives beyond the professions and trades.

1. Analyze your material conditions

This first step is fundamental to begin to plan a life project that has the potential to a life project that has the potential to bring us a minimum of stability over the years. over the years.

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

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

2. Write down loose ideas

Those who think to themselves "I don't know what to do with my life" are, in part, facing a creative problem. Coming up with the most valuable ideas requires thinking about it, getting to know new realities and, above all, to commit oneself 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 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 order them according to their priority.

4. Discard possible professional projects

In this phase, you should discard approximately two-thirds of the items on the list of ideas, taking into account the degree of enthusiasm you have for them and the degree to which you believe they conflict with your values.

In addition, you should also rely on the realistic criterion, you should also rely on the realistic criterion of whether you have the means and the time to make you thrive on them.

As far as the concept of "thriving" is concerned, consider what your expectations are in each case. In this way you will have an approximate idea of your degree of affinity with each project; if in one you need to achieve exceptional results to feel that it has been worthwhile, surely it does not excite you as much as another option in which that feeling comes with much more discreet results.

5. Analyze your capabilities

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

With enough effort and hard work, you could probably do well at almost any task (unless you have significant health problems), as long as your goal is not to be among the elite of the industry at a very large territorial level.. But even so, it is unrealistic to assume that you will be training day and night in order to thrive.

So make a table of your strengths and weaknesses, and think about how those characteristics fit in with the projects you have set for yourself. You don't 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 to decide and to think about the effort you will have to dedicate to it.

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

It is important that the time between making the final decision and starting to implement it is as short as possible. The beginnings are always difficultDon't self-sabotage yourself!

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 a job or someone who has no economic or work problems but does not know what to do in their free time, there are a series of guidelines to follow. Let's take a look at them.

1. Find material sustenance

Finding an economic and material stability that reaches a minimum is essential to develop exciting life projects; if not, uncertainty will wear down our confidence in the idea that everything is worthwhile, given that in a matter of a few days everything can change (and that change for the worse is likely to happen if you don't have a financial cushion or outside help). Therefore, it is necessary to find a balance between the work invested in gaining autonomy and having free time.

2. Focus on a few objectives

Look for goals to achieve and focus on one or two, but not more.but no more. This way you will be able to commit to them, giving them the time they deserve.

When looking for and selecting ideas, follow the steps we saw in the previous section on finding ideas to develop a professional career, but this time do not limit yourself to work.

3. Make friends and bond with others

Progress in personal development tastes better if it is shared by others. So don't forget about others, don't break contact with them in order to devote effort to your projects, and make new contacts. The latter is also interesting in order 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.

Bibliographical references:

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