3 Things to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do

“You do not write your life with words…You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.”—Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

No one has prior knowledge of what to do in life. Or an inkling of the right direction to take. Some Individuals are fortunate to find themselves on the right path early in life. They threw themselves into a particular activity and it turned out to be their calling.

However, many individuals would first meander. Try their hands in some activities, stumble and fail several times before they fall into the path that is right for them.

Folks that are living the lives of their dreams at different points in their lives didn’t know what to do. They thought they were wasting their time.

But amid doubts and uncertainties, one thing was certain — and it is that they had to do something. They must take action and it’s from taking action that you’d discover activities that are suitable for you.

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Try Something New

For birds to fly for the first time, they’d have to spread their wings and lurch into the sky. And a toddler would fall several times before learning how to walk unaided. What this means is that action begets progress and self-discovery.

Trying something new introduces you to a new path where you’d put your creative mind and energy to work to see what you could achieve through your efforts. It’s you putting yourself out there to see what you might uncover about yourself.

Taking action puts doubts away. It is the panacea to unhelpful thoughts and stagnation. And every action you take will help you to discover more about life and yourself.

Also, trying something new is akin to releasing yourself from the norm. To unearth some hidden potential that is yet untapped.

It pays to try something new when it’s apt because you won’t know how good you’re at any task or activity until you throw yourself into it. It is how you discover your potential. It is how you bring your greatness to the surface.

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Get Back to Something You Once Abandoned

Are there some activities you’d like to give another try? Probably you abandoned it too early in your previous attempt and ever since your intuition has been reminding you about it.

There was a time I didn’t know what to do. There were things to do, but I was in a constant battle with self-doubt and indecision so it wasn’t easy to make a decision.

And since I must take action, I choose to return to a line of work I once abandoned. I made this choice because it was an easy one. And it turned out I was right to have abandoned it when I did because there was no connection. I didn’t feel good doing this kind of job.

Returning to what I once deserted was an action that allowed me to identify an activity that wasn’t suitable for me. Though it took time to realize this, I gained from it because it became easier for me to take the next step in life.

What matters is to take action. To shove doubt aside and get yourself busy. Every action you take can either place you into what you’d like doing or it’d help you to expand your awareness — and to understand the direction you’d like to take in life.

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Talk to The Right Individual

You’d be doing the right thing if you share your thoughts and challenges with the right individual. It’s an action that’d help you to unburden some disturbing thoughts and for an expert to guide you into making the right decision.

You can talk to a career coach about your inability to figure out the right professional decision to make. Or a therapist about the challenges in your relationship.

Doing this has some benefits: You can find the strength to take action after talking to someone. You can also have more knowledge and understanding that’d help you decide which action to take.

They’re not going to tell you what to do, but they’ll help you to explore yourself to understand the situation better so you can make the right decision. This works because the answer you seek is buried inside you and the right individual would help you to find some of the things you might be missing.

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Conclusion

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content, to begin with, doubts, he shall end in certainties.”—Francis Bacon

It happens at times that you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation of not knowing what to do. Nevertheless, not knowing what to do is an opportunity to take your time, reflect, and examine your life very well before taking action.

And one thing is certain each time you’re at a loss. It is that you’re going to take action. Taking action removes you from the spot of inaction — and moves you to the phase of progress, and self-discovery.

It might be that you’re about to take action that’d transform your life. Or an action that’d push you closer to the direction that’s suitable for you in life.

You’d get some things correct, and make some blunders each time you take action. But you’re going to identify what you’d enjoy doing and activities that are not fitting for you.

Persistent negative thoughts could have detrimental effects on any individual. But taking action is how you know what to do. When you take action, you get your hands dirty. You transform negative thoughts into actions that’d yield results.

Most people that later discover what they enjoy doing was at some point at a loss. What they did and still do is to take action

This story was previously published on Medium by the same author.