A Simple Question to Help You Find Your Place In Life

What do you want to do with your life?

This was the most challenging question for me to answer when I was a teenager. No chemistry question could compete with this one, despite how terrible I was at chemistry.

Every time I’ve heard it, I would freeze, not able to say anything. It is a simple question. But I couldn’t find the answer to it.

I’ve wasted a lot of time not knowing the answer and doing things I did not enjoy. I was doing things that made me feel safe. Things that made my family happy. I had a stable career, good insurance, and a satisfying paycheck at the end of each month. But I wasn’t happy.

And the funny thing is that deep down, I knew the answer to that question ever since I was ten. But I was too scared to say it. I knew that other people would disapprove of it. Some might even laugh. It wasn’t as safe as what I was doing. So I was too scared to pursue it.

But just like any feeling that you try to suppress for a long time, sooner or later, being unhappy about your path will burst into something bigger.

For me, it turned into a severe burnout. I struggled to get out of bed every day. And when I did manage to get up, all I could do is wait for the day to be over. I was waiting all the time, whether it was waiting for the weekend or the end of the day.

To pull myself out of a slump, I had to ask myself the same question I did not know the answer to. But this time, I figured it out. And to do so, all I had to do is rephrase it.

If it wasn’t about money, what would you do?

It was that simple. When you put it this way, it gets a lot easier because the reason for your dishonest answers gets out of the equation.

What would you want to do if money wasn’t a problem? I bet you can come up with a couple of answers already.

When we get asked about our future plans, the first thing that pops into our head is money. That is how we were raised to think.

What can I do to make a lot of money? Which job will help me buy a house? What should I do to afford to buy my dream car?

We want a practical career. We want safety. And we want people to know that we’re doing the right thing. We don’t want them to laugh at us for pursuing our passion. And we certainly don’t want them to see us fail. So we never try.

But the most important thing that you have to keep in mind is that life is way too short to waste your time chasing money. And if you do put money first, soon you’ll realize that money can’t make you happy. Sure, you need them. They are quite a necessity. But they aren’t the answer to everything.

It is vital to remember that your life does not belong to the people whose opinions you are so afraid of. It belongs to you, and only you can decide what to do with it. So please do something great and prove those folks wrong.

And you know what is great? Doing things you love.

But What About Money?

Even though this year has been a mess so far, I think we live in an excellent time to be a dreamer. I believe that you can make money doing almost anything these days.

Many people can turn their hobbies into a full-time career and do things like traveling the world or sharing their thoughts for a living.

Why can’t you?

You are not worse. You are certainly better at doing what you love because that’s what you do best.

You might not have some required skills or need some practice, but you have what it takes, and that is passion. You can sell anything that is done with passion. That is what people want these days. They want the real thing.

When you put your heart and soul into something that you love, it makes you different from all the other people that are doing it for money. That is something that can’t be faked and something that is worth a lot.

Final Thought

As cliche as it sounds, life is short. You are given too little time not to fight for what you want and what you deserve. And what you deserve is to be happy, to enjoy your life to the fullest, and to do things you are passionate about.

That’s why you should be completely honest with yourself when answering one simple question.

If it wasn’t about money, what would you do?

Disclaimer: The original version of this story was published on another platform. Link to the original version - https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/a-simple-question-to-help-you-find-your-place-in-life-95d3d9a6f111